Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Everyday Life
by XetaJTS
Summary: As far as he knew, living in the wild had been the only way to live, but once he learns of a place known as Acacia guild, he decides to see what going there could do for him and his life. However, he quickly realizes from the first encounter, that the people here could be a tad quirky. How will he adjust to his new life, and what adventures are awaiting him due to his choice?
1. Chapter 1

I woke that morning with a stretch and a yawn. My tail shook as I tried to get my bearings from my nightly slumber. I slowly opened my eyes, seeing my muzzle pop out in front of me, alongside the cave I slept in. Light shined in through the entrance, the deeper parts still rather dark due to the caves entrance being overshadowed. Now more focused, I started to pull myself up off of the leaves I used to keep me comfortable. I then started to slowly walk, my stubby feet making footsteps echo through the cave as I left. I walked out to the same opening I had been so used to seeing; just a small cave, out in the middle of the woods, surrounded by trees taller than I could ever dream to be.

I started to look around and sniffed the air, making sure that there was nothing nearby to disturb my morning routine. From what I could tell, things seemed clear. I then continued on, slowly walking down the incline I used to get to my cave. I needed to go ahead and check my usual rounds, making sure to get enough food to last the day.

I walked over to the usual tree I start with. The marks I made in the past still laid in place in the tree's bark, arrows pointing in the directions to my usual locations. I'd start with my closest spot. It was a small lake; usually doesn't have much to get from it, but it's a good place to get going for the day.

I followed my usual trail, making sure I don't lose my footing or lose the direction I'm walking in. By now, I had learned the area rather well, so it wasn't often I got lost, but better to be safe than to be sorry. I kept following until I came across my usual lake, and as I walked up to it, I sat near the shore trying to catch breakfast.

With little issue, I was able to get my claws on a small fish. Since I was hungry, I decided to start eating it then and there. Once that was done, I went for another, and another, until I was satisfied for the time being. I didn't want to clear out the pond, so I decided to head back and go to the next one.

After traveling back, I went back to the tree I had cut into. I followed the next arrow, which would lead be to a much larger lake, but the fish there were much harder to catch. I don't know what it was, but the ones there were much faster, and even if I swam after them, they were going to give me a hard time.

My trek there was a bit longer than the last, but since my hunger for the time being had been satisfied, it was no issue. I finally was able to come across the lake. This one didn't really have any areas I could just reach my hand in, I would have to swim if I wanted to catch the ones here. I got to a good spot to jump in, the fish here were smart, so when I started I would have to move fast, otherwise they would be too fast for me to catch.

I looked in the water to see the fish; swimming like normal, paying no mind to me. I backed up a few paces, and with a quick sprint, I lept off the ledge, diving into the water. The chase was on. The fish began to swim in circles, not able to understand what had just happened. I set my sights on one who didn't have the right mind to move away from the area. I swam at a quick pace, keeping up my movements even after it had realized that I was here. It was too late, however, as I was going too fast for him to even have enough time to pick up speed.

Suddenly, I gave myself one last burst of speed, opening my jaws and latching on to my prey. It started struggling, moving its body erratically to try and free itself. But I didn't dare let it go. I was going to get my meal. As soon as I felt the resistance start to die down, I swam up, trying to get myself out of the water. The fish I had was still struggling, but not able to muster up as much strength as he could before.

Before I knew it, I shot my head out of the water, the fish still latched between my jaws. I swam up the edge and grabbed on, pulling myself over. I didn't dare let the fish go. I've had them do escape acts on me before, and I wouldn't allow them to do it again. Once I was able to sit myself down, I once again had a meal that would keep me full for the rest of the day.

After my meal, I slowly lifted myself up. Now that I was full, I would easily be able to do the rest of the tasks I had planned for the day. I started to once again walk back to my tree. The next lake I knew of was the biggest reward, but the hardest to achieve. It was a running stream, the fish would jump from the small waterfalls. The hard part about it was that they were always constantly moving forward, and the water was shallow enough where they could effectively swim, but I couldn't.

I got to the stream fairly easily, and it didn't take long at all. There were the fish, just like usual, hopping down the stream, getting from point A to point B. I walked up to the water, near one of the small waterfalls. I'd have to prepare myself for this. I got myself into position. As soon as I saw an opportunity, I shot my jaws forward, missing the fish I had tried to go for. I tried again, and ultimately ended up with the same result.

It was no surprise here, as out of all the lakes, I was here the longest. But the fish here were the biggest of the bunch, so I didn't mind waiting. I kept trying, and failing, and tried some more, then failed more. Then, I was about to give it another attempt, and while I expected to fail, it wasn't for the reason that I thought it would be.

"Hello!"

I then heard a young voice yell from behind me. My train of thought had been broken, and the voice was loud enough to spook me into jumping up, and falling face first into the water. I sat there for a moment, annoyed with whoever this was. Hearing a voice from outside the water, I presumed they were the one who just scared me.

I lifted my head from the water, looking behind me to see who and what it was that scared me. It was… a small black canine? Of course I could tell it was a Pokemon, but I just never had seen one before. It was a black fox with a fairly big mane of black fur around his neck. The top of his head had a tuft of hair, tipped with red at the very top. His tail swished behind him as he looked at me. I also noticed a scarf with a black and white pattern, and he was carrying a small bag around his waist.

"Uh… sorry, I didn't mean to do that, are you okay?" The fox asked.

"Ugh, then what did you mean to do? I was kinda in the middle of something…" I questioned, maybe a bit too harshly, cause his ears drooped when I said that.

"Uh, I'm really sorry... I was just trying to see if you knew this area well?" The Pokemon replied, trying to be careful with his words.

"Hm? I know it a bit, but why are you here if you don't know the area?" I asked.

"Well, I'm kinda on a mission right now. I'm having to find some berries that are in the area, and I was gonna see if you knew where I could find some?" The fox mentioned.

So he was just out here for berries? Not what I expected, but I didn't really mind, "Well… I know a few areas, but I can't travel far from here. My home is nearby, and I don't want to get lost," I said.

"Wait… you're really gonna help me?" He asked.

His response confused me, "Um, yeah? I mean, that's why you asked right?" I cocked an eyebrow, staring at him. This kid seemed off.

"Well uh, thanks! So, I guess you're leading then?" He tilted his head, awaiting for a reply.

"Yep, just follow me, I know where to go," I said, gesturing for the small fox to follow.

I started walking, checking back a few times to make sure he was keeping up with me. I got a better look at what he was wearing. I would guess that the scarf he was wearing is just something he liked to have, but then there was the case of the bag. I had seen other Pokemon carry bags in the past, but this one felt almost professionally made, as if it seemed better than most I've seen before now.

"Say uh, where did you get that bag from?" I asked.

"Oh, the guild gave it to me when I joined," the canine said.

"Guild?" I could have sworn I've heard of guild before, but never went out of my way to learn what it was.

"Yeah, I'm a trainee there, which is why I'm out here," the canine stated, matter of factly.

I felt kind of stupid at this point. I feel like this guild was something I should have known about for as long as I've been around, but I needed to focus right now. I was here trying to help him get berries. Thankfully, we made it to one of the berry patches I knew in the area. I never really bothered eating berries, as I prefered fish.

"Ah, here we go!" The canine ran up past me. He used his nose to open the bag he had strapped on his waist, and started to pluck the berries from the bush I had led him to. He made sure not to ruin them as he moved them into his bag.

While he did that, my curiosity grew on where exactly he was from, and the guild he was supposedly from. I've never really met anyone personally who was from a guild, just heard of them. I was curious, so curiosity got the better of me.

"Hey so, you said you work at a guild? I don't see you guys often, so why'd you come out here today?" I questioned.

"Well, they said something about this area being a possible good place to get berries, so they sent me out here to check it out." The canine replied.

"They sent you alone out here? Isn't that dangerous?" I asked.

"Well, there's no rumours or anything bad about this area being dangerous, so they didn't really think sending me for berries was a bad call," he said. "You said you live out here, right?"

"Yeah I do. The lake I was just at is one of my fishing grounds. Did you guys actually think no one was out here?" I asked.

"Yeah actually, I don't think they thought anyone lived out here. They certainly didn't mention a Totodile being out here, so I guess they didn't know." He said.

"Oh? So you know what I am?" I asked.

"Of course, that was part of the training. We had to be able to identify Pokemon, plus it's hard to forget what a Totodile looks like," he answered.

"Well alright then… Well yeah, this area isn't too populated I would say, but it's home to me," I said.

"Oh okay, I'm sorry. I'll definitely let the guild know someone already lives in the area. But, is it still alright if I take some berries?" He tilted his head questionably.

"I don't mind at all. I don't really eat berries anyway." I waved an arm, signalling him that it was alright.

"Perfect! Thanks for the help. I'll be heading out now though. Take care!" The small fox said, and was about to head off. But, I had a nagging feeling in the back of my head. I just had to ask him one more thing.

"Say, um…?" I hesitated, not really knowing how to ask this without feeling like it was going to be stupid.

"Yeah, what is it?" He looked back, waiting for a response.

I gave a huff, "What's a guild?"

The canine cocked his head at my question, I guess it did sound stupid.

"Like, I've heard of them before, and you said you were a trainee, but I didn't know what they were," I said.

"Oh! That's what you mean. Well uh, the guild is basically like a job, and I take tasks such as collecting berries each day, and others quite similar to that. I'm only allowed to take up small tasks right now though," he started to explain.

"Oh yeah… you did say you were on a mission, I should have put that together," I said, slightly annoyed with myself.

"No, it's okay. There's more to it than just missions, though. You can get training like I said before, not to mention getting to live there, and they feed you every night," he said.

My mind just realized what he had just said, and the gears started turning. He just said he does simple jobs such as getting berries, and he gets shelter and free food in return? This sounds too good to be true. While it did sound too good, why would it be a lie. I had never heard of anything like this about the guilds, nor much at all. But this... He just said he gets shelter, and free food every night from doing odd tasks.

I didn't hate my home. I had a good system here, but it's not like I haven't had any trouble getting food in the past-

"Hey uh, you okay? You're just standing there." The canine's voice broke through my train of thought, and I realized he was right; I had just been standing there.

"Oh... Uh sorry, I was just thinking about something," I said.

"What was it?" He asked.

I gave a huff, trying to buy time while I thought this through. I didn't hate my home, not at all. But I also didn't like the chance that I could go hungry depending on the situation. Plus, I have gotten into scuffles with other Pokemon over food. But what I'm hearing is a way to do odd jobs, and get food every single night.

You know what? If anything, I want to check this place out. Even if I didn't like what I saw, if what this kid's saying is true, then maybe it could be an opportunity for something truly great.

I eventually smiled.

"Alright, I've decided!" I exclaimed.

"Decided on what?" The creature looked at me in a confused manner.

"Oh uh right sorry, spaced out again. I have a favor to ask," I said.

"Really? What is it?" He asked.

"You said you worked at a guild, would it be possible for you to take me there?" I asked.

That was apparently not a good idea to ask, 'cause the canine's expression changed to smile wildly. He suddenly just became happy, and I mean _really_ happy.

"YES YES YES!" He jumped out of excitement. "You could even join! We could be teammates! We could go-" I raised both arms, cutting him off short.

"Woah woah, slow down! I haven't even decided on anything! I just want to see what it was like first, and I don't even know if I'll join yet! Calm down," I said, trying to calm him down.

I noticed his excitement immediately die down, his expression seemingly becoming slightly upset by my choice of words. However, it quickly changed to a small smile. "That's okay! Don't worry, I can lead you there! Just trust me though, you'll love the place!"

"Well, I want to take your word for it, because it does sound like a nice place." I replied.

He nodded, but then looked down, "Oh, I just realized. Did I ever ask your name?"

I just realized too, I hadn't asked him either, "I don't think either of us did, actually. I'm Dax."

"I'm Zen!" The black canine yipped.

"Zen, eh… good to meet you," I smiled.

"Good to meet you too, now come on! I gotta get these berries back and show you the place!" He said, running in circles around me.

"I don't see a reason in rushing," I chuckled, watching him run excitedly.

"Oh uh… haha, sorry, well alright, just follow me. It will take us a little bit though. I hope you don't mind," he said.

"Not at all. Lead the way," I gestured with an arm.

He seemed to calm down a little and nodded. Looks like he listened to what I asked him to do. I motioned for him to start leading, and he led me out of the forest and onto a trail. In case things didn't go well, I left a mark on a tree near the trail to find ourselves if we ever get lost.

During the walk, Zen began asking me questions, "Hey so, you said you lived out in those woods. Where did you live?"

"In a cave," I replied.

"A cave? Why a cave?" he asked.

"I don't know, I thought it was cool. It has this like, rock formation over it that shaded the sun so I could sleep," I explained.

"Huh, that sounds like a lucky find," he said.

"I would say it is!" I replied with pride in my tone.

"But uh, you said not many Pokemon live around the area. Doesn't it get lonely?" He asked.

"Uh… well, it's not that bad. I've met some Pokemon in the past, and I visit my parents from time to time. Besides, I've just been used to doing things on my own, so I guess it's peaceful." I stated thoughtfully.

"Huh, I guess some see it differently, I suppose," Zen said.

That line confused me, "Wait, what?"

"Oh it's nothing. But uh, question; if you did want to join the guild, you know there are plenty of other people, right? Don't you think it would be cool to have people to talk to every morning and stuff?" He asked expectantly.

"I mean, I guess so. I never really thought of it before," I replied.

I can't really say I wasn't curious. It's just ever since I moved out from my parents' home, I've just been on my own, and it's how I was used to it. The main thing to me was being able to not really worry about food anymore, but he said there would be others there, which should of been obvious to me, but still I never really thought of it.

"So well, what do you think of it?" Zen asked, seemingly awaiting for a reply.

"Well… If anything, it could be a new experience. I'll just have to see," I said.

"Well… I think you'll love it! Trust me, it's awesome," he grinned cheekily.

There it was again, this kid seemed really excited. I didn't really understand why he was though. I mean, I only said I wanted to see what the place was like, but he seemed to just go off the rails with excitement when I said that. I didn't really know what for, but he seemed just really eager. In an attempt to calm him down, I tried to change the topic to what they eat there.

"So yeah, the meals and stuff are pretty filling, they usually make sure you have enough to last you until dinner the next day, and they usually serve both fish and fruit, so everyone stays full," Zen explained.

"Well that's good, berries just aren't my type of meal," I said.

"I feel like I like fish better, but still find berries good too," he replied, sharing his opinion.

"I guess that makes sense," I was walking forward as I noticed down the trail a set of steps, I looked up to see… woah…

"Haha," Zen noticed my shock, chuckling at my reaction. "I didn't want to ruin that surprise if you hadn't seen it yet."

"How the heck… do you even make something like that?!" I asked in confusion.

What I was seeing was beyond anything I had imagined something being built. At first glance, it was a giant tree, and when I say giant, this thing overshadowed this entire area of the forest. It felt unreal. I had seen tall trees before, but this completely out beat everything. On top of it being large, on second glance I saw structures around it. Pathways. What I assumed were houses, and Pokemon, I could see either flying or walking on those pathways. I saw houses hanging from the branches, it was like an entire town was built onto the sides of the tree.

"How… how do you, even?!" I asked in awe.

"No idea, really and truly. My reaction was about the same as yours. Come on though, you want to head up there right?" Zen asked.

"Wait what!? We can't fly! How do you expect us to get up there!?" I said yelling.

"Relax, Dax. It's fine, I promise. Trust me, they thought of everything," he said back to me.

I just gave a sigh and decided to keep moving. Kinda too late to stop now. We walked up the staircase to where I saw the base of the tree. We walked up to the massive base of the tree, where a large door blocked our path. What was weird was the door was like built into the tree, with a small staircase in front of it. My guess was to do their best to keep the tree as intact as possible, but still it freaks me out to even think about what it took to build this place.

All of a sudden, Zen walked over to these like, I don't know what you would call them, it's almost like a weirdly shaped hole, connected to a pipe that leads up the tree. He jumped up to reach one of them.

"Hello!" he screamed into the thing.

I heard a female's voice through the intercom, "Uh, yes hello? Wait…." The female paused for a moment, "Zen?! You're back already? I thought finding the berries in that area would take a bit longer!"

"Well, I did too…" He replied truthfully. "But thankfully, I had the help of the forest resident, Dax!" He said to the woman on the intercom.

"Dax…? OH! You mean the Totodile with you, right? Why did you bring him back here?" The lady exclaimed in surprise.

That made me realize that she could see me, but from where exactly? That was a bit spooky, but I guess it makes sense that they can see who's at the gate.

"He said he wanted to check the place out. He's never seen a guild before!" Zen said, which I still felt stupid that I didn't know what it was.

"He's never seen one!? Well bring him up, we'll give him the grand tour if he's interested!" The woman on the intercom said enthusiastically.

The talking stopped, and Zen hopped down from the talking thing.

"So... who was that?" I asked confusingly.

"That was Rudy, she's like our gate keeper; and she's really kind!" The fox replied, but then whispered, "Just don't make her mad, everyone who did that regretted it."

What… what does he mean by that?

Suddenly, the door started to open. The giant double parted door opened outward, and Zen and I took a step back as to making sure we don't get in its way. As it opened I saw a figure waiting in the doorway. I think I remembered seeing this species of Pokemon before. It was rather tall, had a bird like appearance, stood on two talons, while also having tan-colored feathers covering it's chest, and the back of its head hanging down. It seemed to have a bright blue scarf wrapped around it's right arm.

It spoke, sounding exactly like the voice I heard on the intercom.

"Hey there Zen! Good to see you got back," Rudy smiled, greeting the small fox.

"Hey Rudy, I got the berries in my bad like you said!" He said opening the bag for her.

She came over to him and reached inside, getting the berries. She smiled and I noticed the happy expression she held on her face. The task Zen had taken had been well done.

"Great work Zen, glad that you were able to get them, and you made a friend!" she said.

"Well uh actually, we just met. I don't exactly know if we're friends yet," I said.

That seemed to down Zen a little, but he became quickly upbeat again, "Yeah it's no worries, it's kinda hard to say we're friends just yet, we only just met!"

"Ah yes, sorry of me to assume, that does seem rather fast, in any case. Zen here said you helped him, and your name would be?" Rudy asked.

"My name is Dax, and you're Rudy?" I asked.

"Yep yep, that's right," she said. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too," I replied.

"Well, as Zen said here, you've never seen a guild before, and I assume you don't really know what we do here either. Is that right?" she questioned kindly.

"Well Zen gave me a bit of a rundown, but I don't know everything," I said.

"Ah, that makes sense. Well, come on then. No reason to not show you around, just follow me, come along as well Zen," Rudy assured.

Zen and I followed as we were led up a path of stairs, leading up to the walkways I saw earlier. These things were large, with guard rails to make sure people don't fall, and enough space to give most Pokemon a space to walk.

"Well, I think the first thing to explain is what a guild is. Basically here at Acacia Guild, we give out services to many different Pokemon via missions. You know how Zen here brought those berries?" I nodded my head, and she continued. "That was a mission given to him by us, so we could know where new food sources are located. While that was a mission assigned by us, there are plenty of other missions assigned by Pokemon through requests, and they can vary in requirement of skill, what is done, the works. When a mission is completed, gold is usually payment for the service," Rudy explained.

"So basically, Pokemon, or the guild itself, give out missions, and then they are completed and rewarded as such?" I asked.

"That's the short version of it, but the minor details aren't that crazy or important in the long run. However, I must warn you; when you work for a guild like us, we have a fee on completed missions, so you won't be able to keep much of the money," Rudy went on to explain.

"Wait really? Why's that?" I asked, cocking an eyebrow.

Zen actually had the answer, "Trust me, I had the same question, but it's like this: they feed us, give us shelter, train us, and take care of us if we ever get hurt or sick. So, since we never have to worry about things like that, it's like us giving back to them."

"Oh! Oh ok, yeah I think that makes sense. But you did say you get some money in return, correct?" I asked.

"It's not a lot, but it wouldn't be fair if you didn't get something in return." She responds, before continuing. "Oh, and another thing, we don't do the fee on stuff that you sell, just on the rewards from missions." Rudy explained.

"Sell?" I tilted my head in confusion.

"Yep, we have a lot of traders, shops and services here. Let me introduce to you what's on the first floor here," Rudy motioned for us to follow her with a wave of a claw.

She explained how this first area, was mainly shops, we walked up to these two stands, one with a small blue mouse, and another with a red one.

"Hey there you two," Rudy said.

"Heya Rudy!" The two said in unison, but then looked at one another angrily. What was that about?

"Heya, so Cole, Jade," she motioned to the blue, then red one respectively, "We have a guest here, I'm showing him the ropes around here, so why don't you explain your shops."

"Okay I'll start!" the blue one said, "My name's Cole, and my shop is the one where you can buy berries, and other food items that you might need for long journeys!"

"And I'm Jade! My shop is where you buy medicinal items, and other sorts of tools that could help you on missions," the red one said.

"Tools as in?" I questioned.

"Well like, let's say if you have to collect fish, I have nets and things that could help make the job easier," she explained.

"But if you already have food, then you could just use the strength you get from them to collect the fish," Cole interjected.

Jade started to get a little heated, "BUUTTTT if you had the tools then why bother with the food, you waste less energy that way!"

"But who needs a tool when just regaining your strength from food helps you do-" Cole was abruptly cut off by Rudy.

"Guys, save it for later, I've still got to show him the rest of the place," She spoke with a stern tone in her voice.

The two gave a huff, "Fine!"

Rudy motioned for us to walk off, and we left the two angry mice to their work.

"So... anyone gonna explain that?" I asked.

"Those two have been rivals in selling items for years, and that's just how they've always been," Rudy explained.

"Doesn't that hurt their businesses?" I scratched my chin questionably.

"Surprisingly, no. Outside of their rivalry, they've never done anything to make their buyers distrust them," Rudy explained.

"Well, I guess that's a good thing," I nodded, seeming to approve with her statement.

The next thing we arrived at was this, purple Pokemon with gems for eyes.

"Hello there Rudyyyy, how's it goingggg?" The creature said in a slow, almost melodical voice.

"Hello to you as well, Sly. How are you today?" she asked.

"I'm fineeee, thank you. Who might this new youngster beee?" He said looking at me.

"This would be Dax, he's getting to check the place out," she said.

"Ahhh, well let me introduce as to what I do. I'm a banker, and if you ever feel like you might lose your money that's on hand, then I'll be sure to neverrrr let it disappear. As long as your money is in my hands, I can promiseeee you, I'll never let anything happen to itttt," the creature said, elongating some letters within some words.

"You… you make sure money doesn't go away?" I asked, slightly hesitantly.

"Yep! Sly is an awesome banker. I usually keep money I make with him, I've never had a day where he hasn't been able to give me my money back. He's also got another service though," Zen explained.

"He's rightttt, if you ever come across any gemssss, I'll be sure to give a you a niceeee payment for themmmm," Sly said, smiling at the thought of gems.

"You buy gems?" I asked.

"Yessss, they are my favoriteeeee thing to eat," he said.

Ok, it's official; this guy was simply weird.

"Sly's got a diet for gems, so he makes sure if anyone finds any, he'll be sure to pay you greatly for them," Rudy said.

"Well, alright then…" I said still really freaked out.

"I hope you enjoyyy the rest of the tour, little oneeee," Sly said as we waved goodbye to him.

We continued up to the next set of stairs, where we were on the next floor of the tree. Being up this high felt crazy to me, I've never been in a place like this. It's absolutely wonderful. While some of the people here felt really… quirky? This place was beautiful.

The next floor seemed a bit different from the last. I noticed there were like, not really any shops this time around, there were other Pokemon in groups. Some were those that I think I could recognize; a Charmeleon, a Jolteon, and one I didn't recognize which was a green snake-like thing. I've seen snake-like Pokemon, but not any of this kind. All three of them seemed to have been wearing a scarf around their necks. They were orange, green, and turquoise respectively.

It also seems like they were looking at these sorts of boards, with a bunch of different pieces of paper on them.

"What are those?" I asked.

"Those are the mission requests. Usually we have a delivery Pokemon come in with requests, and you'd basically look on the board and see jobs that are available each day. These are some of the jobs I was telling you about," Zen explained.

"Oh, so that's how that works, interesting. So, are they like, updated every day?" I asked.

"Yep! Sure are," Zen replied.

"And who are they?" I asked.

"The Charmeleon is Ryder, the Jolteon is Sparky, and the Servine there is Monty," Zen said.

"Oh, you know them?" I asked.

"We aren't close, we've only worked together on some jobs but that's about it. Their team name is The Forces of Nature," Zen said.

"Huh… neat, so I guess they are picking out a job?" I asked.

"Yep, that's right," Rudy nodded her head.

The team picked out a flier, and walked down the stairs without really paying mind to us, Rudy told them good luck and they just moved on.

"I guess they're heading out to do a request then?" I questioned as I watched them disappear.

"Yep, that's right, it's as simple as that. Usually the people who make the requests will head over here to make the payment," Rudy explained.

"Wait, Rudy I just realized something. I know we're talking about all of this, but what's your role here?" I asked.

"Ah, yeah, good question. I'm basically the gatekeeper, and I keep watch to see who's at the door, and make sure no one comes in. I have the guild leader watching over it while I give you guys the tour," she explained.

"Oh, that's neat," I said.

"Ain't it!" Zen said.

I just nodded.

We headed to the next floor, which seemed to have two main areas. First things first is I saw like, a huge area with a few tables close together. I had a feeling what this was.

"So, is this where you get the meals every night?" I asked hoping that what Zen said was true.

"Yep that's right! Every night, every Pokemon come here to get their dinner. We keep storage locked up, so no midnight snacks are allowed. Thankfully, the best part is that everyone gets a choice; you like berries, you get berries. You like fish, you get fish. It's as simple as that! Oh, and another thing, the chef here is yours truly," Rudy said.

"So, we get to eat dinner every night, no matter what?" I asked.

"Yep, so long as nothing happens to the storage room. That's the plan," she nodded her head.

"That's amazing," I said.

"Well, that's what you get rewarded when you give money earned from your missions. It wouldn't be fair if we didn't do so," Rudy said.

"It's still awesome!" I grinned, and then looked over at the other area. "What's that other place over there?" I pointed to the other path from the staircase.

I saw two doors that led into the tree, one was bigger than the other, having a bit more built to it.

"Ah, the smaller one there is our guild master's office, and past that, is the building made for Mucosa, our nurse," Rudy said, "Let's go meet her."

We walked over to the bigger building, and entered inside. There, I saw two small Pokemon near where we just entered. I believe they were an Eevee, and a Cleffa. On the table I saw a much larger Pokemon that I didn't recall ever seeing, and an Azurill. The larger Pokemon was putting bandages on the smaller one's head.

I happened to notice something; the four Pokemon within the nursing area were also adorning a scarf around each of their necks. The Eevee had a white scarf, the Cleffa had a light red one, and the Azurill had a pink one. Then, the large Pokemon's was a mint color, and it also appeared to be wet and sticking to their skin. How strange.

"Alright Lazuli, can you please promise me that after this you'll be more careful when bouncing? I don't want to see you get hurt from it," the larger one said in a feminine voice.

"B-but, it's so much fun though!" Lazuli whined in a very young masculine voice.

"I know it's fun, but you need to be more careful, okay? Fun isn't worth it if you keep getting hurt," she said.

"Oh, okay…" Lazuli said disappointed.

"Now go on you, little scamp. Be safe, and also have fun, okay?" the larger pokemon said smiling.

Lazuli got up happily and ran to the other two Pokemon here, asking him if he was okay and stuff. They ran out without giving much mind to us it seemed. The bigger Pokemon took notice of us.

"Oh hey there, Rudy, Zen and… who might this be?" she asked.

"Mucosa, this is Dax,. He's here checking out the place, and it's his first time seeing a guild," Rudy said.

"OH! Oh my gosh, that's amazing! So, I guess he's here to see my station then?" Mucosa said.

She bent down to look at me, "Hey there, it's nice to meet you Dax. I'm Mucosa."

"Hey Mucosa, it's nice to meet you too. So uh, I don't mean this to be rude but what Pokemon are you?" I asked.

"Ah, you've never seen a Goodra before?" She chuckled, not taking any offense. "That's what I am, but I'm also a shiny Goodra." She stated, gesturing to her own body.

She was covered yellow for most of her body, goo seeming to be secreting from her body, which I found really strange. But she seemed really nice.

"What do you mean by shiny?" I asked this, because I've never heard the term before.

"Ah, it's nothing special. Just a term for being off-colored. My species are usually white in color, but I'm yellow, as you can see. It's rather rare, 1 in 8192, in fact. It's understandable that you've never heard of it before," she said.

"I found it cool as well!" Zen said to me.

That gave a laugh out of Mucosa, "Yes, it is pretty cool, isn't it?"

"So uh, Mucosa, what is it that you do here?" I asked curious.

"Ah it's simple. I'm the nurse here, and I treat wounds that any of you have while on missions," she said.

"So, you heal people? How's that work?" I asked.

"Well, besides keeping things bandaged, I've learned of ways to make medicinal herbs and cures from any medical conditions, with the use of my goo and other materials," she said, smiling proudly.

"From… your goo?" I asked now losing curiosity and moving straight to confusion.

"Well, it's not just the goo. The goo helps create the medicine, but it alone isn't enough to make the medicine out of. It'll keep wounds from getting infected by keeping the wound covered while it heals, so you don't have to worry about things getting worse or them taking too long," she said, "Also, the goo doesn't hurt, I promise."

"Well… if you say so, haha," I said nervously.

"It's okay, don't worry. No one believes it the first time I tell them, I get it completely," she said.

"Well, I thought I might have said something wrong," I said.

"Not at all! Don't worry about it," she said with a smile.

"If you say so," I said back.

"Well, in any case, Zen, it's good to see you made a friend," she said.

"Actually, we aren't friends just yet. We just met today," Zen said this time, to my surprise. He beat me to it.

"Oh! Sorry about that, I didn't realize. Well, in any case, I hope you enjoy the rest of the tour, and I'm guessing you're here cause you are interested in joining. Please know we'd be happy to have you!" Mucosa said.

I felt as if she was being a bit too nice, and I didn't really know how to reply, "Uh, thank you!"

"Not a problem at all, you all have fun now!" she said.

We told her our goodbyes and headed out. We didn't stop by the guildmasters office yet, due to him being on watch duty while Rudy was giving me this tour. We headed past the cafeteria to the next staircase, and from what Rudy said, this was the last floor. This area was wrapped around the entire trunk of this tree, and on this floor was what appeared to be houses. One was built into the trunk of the tree, two of them hanged and supported by beams near the edge, and the rest were placed on the bases of the platforms.

"What's this?" I asked.

"This is where everyone, including myself, live. These are our houses that are built for us," Rudy explained.

"You all get houses?" I asked.

"Some of us share, such like the teams, and Mucosa and the guild master live together. So yeah, more or less," Rudy explained.

"So, I'd get to live in one too?" I asked.

"That's the idea, yes, but we'd have to talk to the guildmaster to get all of that set up," she explained.

"So wait, Zen you live here too?" I asked.

"Yep! I sure do!" he said.

"So, where's your team at?" I asked.

He seemed to be a bit shocked by the question, and laughed, "I uh… haha, I don't have a team."

"Wait, what?" I asked.

Rudy spoke up, "Zen here was our most recent member, and since we hadn't gotten any new members signing up as of late, we don't really have a team we can put him on."

"I mean, what about the others?" I asked.

"It's different. Those aren't trainee's. The idea is that trainee's can team up so then after a few missions, they'll be full members of the guild. But, if they are already on a team, they are full members, not being trained. So, if a person is teamed up with non-trainee's, then they aren't really trainee's. It's a very weird rule, but it's what we feel needs to be done so a trainee doesn't take something on too early," Rudy explained.

"So, in conclusion, Zen doesn't have a team?" I asked.

"That is correct," Rudy said.

"Hey, it's okay though! I'm sure more members will drop by for us to both form our own teams!" Zen said, still smiling anyway. He remained optimistic.

Wait, was this why Zen was so excited when I said I would join? Was he trying to get me to join his team?

"Well uh, yeah, well this is the last floor right? What's next?" I asked.

"You still have to meet the guild master," Rudy said, "He's waiting at my usual post, so he'll take over from here alright?"

"Okay, thanks for the tour Rudy!" I smiled, appreciating the time she had given.

"Yeah thanks again," Zen said.

"My pleasure, you two," she said back.

We walked back down to the second floor, walking around the the other side, and I noticed a very peculiar Pokemon watching over the ledge. Rudy walked over and seemed to tell him something, but it was inaudible for me. The dragon-looking creature flew over; blue body, with black scruffy fur around his neck and arms, and some magenta-colored fur on top of his head, belly and undertail. This dragon wore a green scarf, but the strange part was that it wore three.

Then, I realized… they have three heads!?

"Hello, Hey, H-hi..." the three heads said simultaneously, but in different ways, to my surprise.

"Uh, hello? You… three?" I asked in confusion on what I was looking at.

"Yeah, technically we're three, but we're all named the same, we are Pythagoras," The middle head said. I was guessing this was the head who is in control.

"Pythagoras… So are you three the guildmaster?" I asked.

"Yes we are, who else would we freakin' be, ye-yeah we are…" the three heads all said something different, this was gonna get confusing fast.

"So Zen, would you mind doing something for us?" the middle head said.

"Oh uh, yeah what is it?" he asked.

"Would you mind if we were to speak alone with Dax here? It would be better if we got to talk to him alone just like we did when you first joined," they said.

"Oh uh…" he seemed a bit concerned if he should let the large dragon do that.

"Hey, don't worry, I can talk to you afterwards, okay?" I don't know why I really said that, maybe it was to reassure him.

"Oh! Uh yeah!" Zen said, nodding his head. He then ran off to one of the other areas.

"So, I heard from Rudy, your name is Dax?" Pythagoras said.

"Uh yeah, I am. What's up to where you needed Zen to leave?" I asked.

The head to my left spoke up, "Cause he can be pretty annoying at time-" the middle head bit the one on his right arm.

"Quiet, that is not the reason I told him to leave! Zen can be quick to get excited, so just to keep him from getting _too _(italics) excited, it would be best to discuss whether your decision will be to join the guild, or not. Rudy gave me the rundown of it all." He explained.

"Ah okay, well yeah, when I heard about it from Zen, it sounded interesting," I explained.

"Interesting how?" he asked, wanting more information.

"Well I… I more or less just liked the idea that I wouldn't have to hunt for food," I explained.

"That's… your only reason?" he cocked his head to the side. It seems like he hasn't gotten the information he truly needed.

"I mean, I don't hate hunting, but if I guarantee I can eat every single night without fail, then I'll take it," I said.

"This is a first, I've never heard anyone give this reasoning for joining a guild before," he said, stunned by my answer.

"Wait, really? No one else has joined due to being hungry?" I asked.

"Not exactly in your case, no," he said. What did he mean by not exactly?

"So, I guess I should go over some rules and things. If you decide to join, you'll be given a place to sleep, and starting out, you'll be a trainee. You'll get all of the necessary equipment for your missions, just like the other members," he said.

"Rudy mentioned something about teams, and how you can't exactly team up with someone who isn't a trainee," I said.

"Ah yes, you are allowed to work alone if you so like, or you can join up with other trainees and form a team, and the only other trainee-" I finished his sentence.

"It's Zen, right?" I asked.

"That is correct, now the question is, do you want to work alone, or do you want to work with him and form a team?" he said.

"Does that really matter?" I asked.

"It's required to know, so yes, you'll either be a team leader, or join an already existing member's team, however by being a leader you won't exactly have any teammates, until another person joins, and you'd be required to handle organizing and other things, so it's up to you what you want to do here," he said.

I thought over my options here. Be a team leader, or join an already existing leader, by default is Zen. Being a team leader could be cool, and while I am good at organizing and such with my morning routine, I realized however I did not have enough experience with the people here, or the people in general to lead others. Zen listened when I asked something but that's different, I can't exactly lead here. I thought about joining Zen, but I still don't really know him, like, I've known him for not even an hour or two, I don't have a good sense of time, but it's barely been a day, was that really the right call?

But then and there, I realized something. When I even mentioned the fact that I wanted to see this place, Zen was the happiest I've ever seen a person with a stranger. It was almost comical, until I realized that he wasn't being funny. He was genuinely just that excited. I thought it over again, and while I don't know Zen that much yet, I also don't know enough about the guild.

Zen does though, and me joining would probably make him happy. I don't know Zen, I don't even think we're friends yet to be honest. But I've never truly seen a person that happy for something so simple, and I can tell ever since I've got here he's been expectant of something, and I guess this was it. I don't think he's a bad guy, not at all. I just haven't gotten to know him enough yet. But in any case, I don't even think I want to go back to my cave after seeing this place. This was too good of an opportunity, and I was gonna need help, and who else better to help than Zen. On the plus side, I think me enlisting in the guild would probably make his day.

Ah, what the hell.

"Alright, I'll join Zen's team," I said.

"Wait, really?" he asked.

"Yeah, really. I want to join, but I don't think I'm anywhere near prepared to handle this stuff on my own, so yes, I'm in. Let's go get Zen and do whatever else needs to be done," I said.

I could see Pythagoras smile from my remark, "Well, alright then, let us go. I hope you can handle it, runt, I'm… so glad…"

Pythagoras motioned for me to follow. We headed upstairs, and I saw at some of the tables, Zen was talking to that Azurill, whose named Lazuli, from earlier. Pythagoras called his name and he came running over.

"Oh hey, so how'd things go?" he asked.

"Well, I'm going to join," I said.

"Wow! That's awesome, you get to have you own team and-" I stopped him.

"Nah, I kinda decided I'm gonna join your team," I said before he could finish.

"Wait what..? You're joining… My team?" He said, tilting his head at me. His eyes grew wide from the shock.

"Yep! I thought about it, and since you know how all this works, I thought working with you would be the best option," I said.

Suddenly he grew that giant smile I saw before and started hopping in circles, "YES YES YES! I have a teammate! I have a teammate!"

"Zen! Let's calm down, we aren't done registering," I said.

His hops stopped, "Oh right! Haha, sorry about that, so uh Pythagoras, does that mean we get our badges?!"

"Yes indeed it does, follow me into my office please," he said.

We headed to his office, and inside was a sort of table, with some sorts of feathers and alongside little jars of stuff. There were some containers in here, a drawing of him and nurse Mucosa on the wall, and a few other nicknacks. He reached into the back and pulled out a small box, and with his smaller heads, opened it and held it up to me. Inside were a bunch of scarfs of different colors.

"This is something we always give to the members. You may choose any color you like," Pythagoras said.

I looked at the different colors and patterns, one similar to the black and white pattern Zen was wearing, but I wanted a different color. I picked out a red one, and wrapped it around my neck.

"That's a nice look!" Zen said.

"It's my favorite color, I hope it does," I said.

"That's not all, you two," Pythagoras said. He went to the back, opened one of the containers, and pulled out two small weirdly shaped badges, and indention in them with a black spot. They were also a nice looking silver color.

"Now then, you two just gotta tell me a team name, then I'll mark the badges with your team name, don't worry I'll make it look nice," he said.

"Uhh…. Oh gosh I didn't think of a name," Zen said.

"You never thought of a name for your team?" I asked.

"I mean, the point of a team is to account for everyone, so I never had any time to think of one!" Zen explained.

"Oh right… that makes sense… Wait Zen, what Pokemon are you?" I asked.

"I'm a Zorua, why do you ask?" he replied

"What typing are you?" I asked back.

"Dark," he said.

I gave it some thought, Water-type, Dark-type…. GOT IT!

"Team Tsunami!" I said with a smile.

Zen smiled, "That's awesome!"

"You really think so?" I asked.

"Yeah I do! That's the best name for this team! Pythagoras, Team Tsunami is our name!"

"Haha, very well," he took one of the feathers, and opened one of the small bottles, dipped the end of the feather in, and then started to do something to the pins. After a minute or so, he presented us the pins, with our team name on them.

I took mine, "This is really cool."

Zen asked Pythagoras to pin his to his scarf, "Thanks! This is awesome isn't it!?"

I fiddled with mine and pinned it to my scarf as well, "Yeah, it is, doesn't feel too heavy either."

"Well then, you two! I officially welcome Team Tsunami to Acacia Guild!" all three of Pythagoras' heads said.

"Thanks!" I said, "Also hey uh, when's dinner?"

"Haha, I had a feeling you'd ask. Don't worry, we're in fact about to start. It's a huge meal, so don't you worry," he said.

"Awesome!" I said.

"Yeah! Let's go!" Zen said.

Zen ran out of the room, and I followed closely behind. When I walked out of the room, I saw Rudy working on setting food, Mucosa and some of the other Pokemon sat around the tables, and Zen waving at me to come on over.

Well, so this is what I was getting into huh? Can't really say it's all I expected it to be, but hey, this could definitely be worth being a part of. Probably in more ways than I could have imagined. But for now, I was ready to sink my teeth into some of this food, I was not going to miss out on this.

I wonder if they give seconds?

(Authors note: I want to thank those who read and support this story, this was a new thing for me to do in this case, and I wanted to start out strong with it. I want to thank those who helped give me ideas here for this, some of the best people I've ever met. Special thanks to Oddball, BlueHairCruse, Dipper, Transcendent, Moonminun, HattedClown, Chissairon, Cozy, Luanastar, Louis, chlooepm, and DegenFloofs for all the help in creation, and for chapter 1 extra thanks to Chlooepm and Degenfloofs for the beta reading. You're all amazing, thank you so much.)


	2. Chapter 2

As everyone started swarming into the area that I had seen the tables set up in, I took a look around to see where everyone was sitting; Mucosa and Pythagoras shared a table by themselves, the Forces of Nature team sat together, and lastly, the banker and the fighting shop owners sat at the same table. Glancing around more, I also saw those other three Pokemon from the nurse's office sitting at a table, which made me realize that I only knew one of their names; the Azurill, Lazuli.

I then looked over at Rudy again. With a better angle, I noticed some sort of like… wait, fire? She started a fire?!

"Uh, Zen!?" I asked with a huge amount of worry and panic. "Why did Rudy start a fire? Should I put it out?"

"What? Oh… right, forgot to mention that. Rudy cooks the food," Zen replied, matter of factly.

"Cooks?" I questioned, confused on what he meant by his statement. I had only ever eaten raw fish, as I was taught by my parents. What exactly did he mean by 'cook'?

"Wait, don't you know what cooking is?" Zen tilted his head in confusion. I felt a bit embarrassed to answer that.

"Uh… no…"

"Rudy uses her fire abilities to heat up the food, it's how she cooks it!" He said with a smile, and to my relief, didn't find anything wrong with my question.

"So, what she's doing now is 'cooking'?" I asked, just making sure I understood.

"Yep, they apparently got some help to put a metal sheet over the fireplace, and that's how she cooks it," he explained. That, however, just led me to another question.

"'Fireplace'?"

"Yep, it basically keeps the fire from hitting everything else," Zen said.

"Oh, so to keep everyone from getting burned, including the tree?" I questioned.

"Exactly," Zen replied.

"Wait a sec though," I wondered out loud. "Is the fish better when it's cooked?" I never actually tasted fish that had been cooked, so I was unsure of this was gonna help with flavor and stuff.

"Well, if you don't like it cooked, then you can always have it raw." Zen concluded simply.

"I guess so…" I said, still unsure if I would like it.

"Just give it a shot, I'm pretty sure you'll love it!" Zen encouraged.

"Well… alright, what could go wrong?" I gave in, finally deciding on trying cooked fish.

Zen gave a nod, and motioned for me to follow him. I did so, and I followed him towards the middle of the eating area, where he went over and sat with the team that Lazuli was on. I saw that he was still wearing the bandages from earlier today. The Eevee and Cleffa sat near the Azurill at the table, and Zen jumped up there with them.

"Hey guys!" Zen greeted as he jumped up. The three looked over, and the bouncy Pokemon's face lit up drastically more than the other two.

"Hey Zen!" Lazuli exclaimed with joy, who I saw was still wearing his pink scarf.

"Heya," the Cleffa with the light red scarf spoke up, making me aware that it was a girl.

"Hey," the Eevee sporting the white scarf spoke, sounding feminine as well. Jumping up onto the table as well, the three turned their heads to face me.

"Hiya, new person!" Lazuli exclaimed in a loud voice. I couldn't help but get a tad bit nervous from the amount of eyes on me at the moment.

"Oh, uh... heya," I replied, nervousness clear in my speech.

"What's your name, what's your name!?" Lazuli asked with pure curiosity and with a hyperactive energy that I couldn't understand, clear from how he kept bouncing in his chair.

"Uh… I'm Dax," I responded, nodding in his direction. "Nice to meet you, Lazuli." His eyes went wide the moment he heard me say his name.

"You know my name already?" He exclaimed once more, getting even more excited, which I thought was impossible. "Can you read my mind!?"

"Wait, what? I'm not really understanding here," I started, remembering the scene in Mucosa's office and their conversation. "I just heard your name in the nurse's office." I think something in his brain of his clicked.

"Ohhhh, you were in there," He said in realization. "Haha, must have missed ya." He chuckled as he continued to bounce. Clearly, Lazuli had a hyperactive personality. Perhaps even more than Zen's, which was thought to be impossible to me.

"So, your name's Dax?" The Cleffa asked, and I nodded, then she continued. "I'm Crystal, and we're part of the Cute Crew!"

"Cute… Crew…?" I said, holding in a laugh. "Uh, I mean, it's nice to meet you, Crystal."

"Don't give the name a bad rep," the Eevee spoke up, huffing a bit. "Lazuli came up with it, and it's fine. Name's Stella, by the way."

"Stella, nice to meet you," I said to her.

"It's whatever," she retorted, turning her head away. Meanwhile, Lazuli kept bouncing in his place.

"We're the Cute Crew, and we're the cutest team to ever be!" Lazuli announced cheerfully, and I couldn't help but smile.

"They were the most recent team to join right before ours," Zen explained.

"Huh, that's neat," I nodded, understanding.

"Wait a second! What do you mean 'before yours'?" Stella asked, tilting her head in confusion at us.

"Everyone! Food is done! Once I set out everyone's meals, we have an announcement to make!" Rudy suddenly called out from across the room. The Azurill suddenly began to bounce faster.

"Oh, guys, we can discuss this later - I wanna eat!" Lazuli spoke quickly and excitedly, shaking the chair with his bouncing.

Everyone quieted down as the Blaziken passed out all the plates, starting with the Forces of Nature's table, then moving on to ours. Rudy was pretty quick on her talons too and kept her balance, even when carrying multiple plates at a time. What was sitting in front of me was… what I never expected a fish to look like. First off, none of the skin or scales were present; it seemed to have been cut off completely or something. Secondly, the meat wasn't red like I was used to seeing it, and instead was a golden tan color, steam trailing off of the meat. It also smelled really, really good. Taking in the scent, I picked up the familiar scent of sitrus berries mixed in with the cooked fish, and it was wholesome. Rudy made a second round around the place, dropping off what seemed to be these rounded plates with water in them; my guess was that this was what we would drink.

"Looks good, don't it?" Zen asked, a bit of drool appearing at the corner of his lips. I nodded to him, my eyes not looking away from the meal in front of me.

"Smells good…" I replied in awe.

"Oh yeah, not only does cooking it make it smell good, but Rudy uses a variety of berries to add to the flavor, and I think this time she used sitrus berries," Zen commented, eyeing his fish carefully while giving it a whiff of his own.

"It is most definitely sitrus," I replied matter of factly, licking my lips from hunger.

I glanced over at the Cute Crew looking down at their food as well, while Lazuli was still bouncing. _Does he ever stop doing so? _I asked myself mentally, before shaking my head and removing the thought.

I then looked over at Rudy who gave Cole, Jade, and Sly their plates. Afterwards, she went over to Pythagoras and Mucosa, and she left the last one at their table. The Hydreigon suddenly got up from his seat and flew over in front of the area.

"Everyone, may I please have your attention!" The main head said, looking around, "Yeah, pay attention, you-" the second head was about to speak up, but the main head forced the somewhat rude counterpart to stop speaking with a glare in his eyes, and he backed off, looking to the side. With that, the main head spoke up again, clearing his throat.

"As I was saying, everyone please," Pythagoras called out again, the main head looking up with a smile. His other heads remained quiet this time. Everyone, including myself, waited for what he had to say.

"We have great news to bring! We've had a new member join us today, and not only that, this new member and another have formed our current third team to Acacia Guild. Please, allow me to introduce Team Tsunami, and its members; Zen, and our newest addition, Dax!" He announced, finishing his speech. Pokemon within the eating area had begun clapping their paws, claws, and anything else together, while others called out the team name in a roaring cheer.

I was a bit nervous, from all this attention I wasn't really used to. I kept looking around, not knowing what to really say or do here. I just gave small gestures and I guess tried to wave back. I felt happy though, a smile naturally formed on my face, albeit was a nervous one. Despite that, I still felt really happy.

I took a look at Zen, who was smiling wildly, trying to wave to everyone in the room. Suddenly though, he got knocked to the floor by a flying object from the other side of the table. After a resounding thud, I looked down to see Zen sprawled out and realized that the Azurill had tackled him to the floor.

It's official; Lazuli is definitely more hyper than Zen.

"ZEN! You didn't say you got a team! I'm so happy for you!" Lazuli hugged Zen tightly with his tail.

"I was meaning to tell you all during our meal!" Zen said hopping up onto his paws and seating himself at his original spot. "But it seems that Pythagoras has beaten me to it." Lazuli kept bouncing around him, asking a variety of questions all at once, talking at a speed that I thought wasn't possible. Crystal eventually caught my attention as she poked me with her arm.

"So that's why you're here!" The Cleffa spoke up, smiling brightly. "That's awesome Dax, I know you'll love it here."

"Well, thanks. I'm really liking it here so far," I replied, but then suddenly I heard my tummy rumble.

"But hey, uh... are we allowed to eat now?!" I called to Pythagoras. He gave a chuckle.

"Yes indeed, I believe everyone here is rather hungry. Rudy has prepared this meal for everyone, so let's not let it go to waste. Last thing to say is that I hope everyone here gives our new member here a great, warm welcome, and enjoy his company!" He announced with finality, and the Hydreigon sat back down as Zen gave a small bop to Lazuli that looked a bit silly. Lazuli went around the table and Zen jumped back up onto his chair.

"Alright, that was fun and all, but Lazuli, did you have to tackle me?" Zen asked, rubbing the part of his head that might have hit the floor from the tackle. Lazuli got back into his chair, but kept up his bouncing.

"But it's fun to hug!"

"Hugging is fine, but you already hurt yourself earlier!" Zen scolded slightly, laughing a bit, "Don't want to hurt yourself again from something like a tackle."

"But both are even more fun!" He argued back. Zen responded with a laugh, while shaking his head dismissively as he then turned to face me.

"Anyways Dax, how's the food… wait, where'd your food go?"

I looked at him, and back to my plate. I did my best to speak, "Umph, nhwere," I tried to say with my mouth full… It was way too tempting, and it smelled so good. He looked at me with a confused smile, then realized.

"You… you ate it that fast?!" I swallowed, and nodded with a bit of a blush on my face.

"It was, uh… yeah... really good…"

"See! What'd I tell you?" he yipped, giving a cheerful smile.

"Yeah, you were right. "I admitted, then my eyes lit up with wonder. "Can I get seconds?" Zen suddenly turned around and called out to the Blaziken across the room.

"Rudy! Can Dax get more food? He's finished his already!"

"You're kidding?!" She said with disbelief, but got up regardless. "Well… let me eat a bit of mine real fast and I'll get him a second plate, pronto!"

"Thank you!" Zen cheerfully replied before turning back around to take a bite of his. The Zorua held it in his claws for a moment, then ripped a piece off with his teeth, eating it at a way slower rate than I did. Meanwhile, I held in a burp.

"So… uh, we're allowed seconds?" I questioned, cocking my head at an angle.

"Usually we are, sometimes even thirds if we have enough food for some of us, but we usually just stick to seconds most of the time." Zen answered with his mouth full, chewing on some of his fish.

"So, seconds is the limit, huh? I guess that makes sense, given how many Pokemon are here." I thought aloud, tapping my chin. "Even then, seconds is pretty generous."

"Well, it's really just because we catch a lot when we go fishing. This type of fish isn't that hard to come by," Zen responded.

"He's right, we usually come up with a good number every day," Crystal added, including herself into the conversation.

"Thirds are what I would like best, though." Stella said, taking another bite of her food. She must have a bottomless pit for a stomach.

"Hopefully next time we'll do Oran berries to add taste to the fish." Lazuli said, his eyes sparkling at the mention of the familiar blue berry, a drop of drool escaping the corner of his mouth. "I love, love, _love _Oran berries!"

"So uh… Dax how'd you find out about this place?" Stella asked, turning her head in my direction.

"Oh, uh… well, I actually met up with Zen on one of my daily fishing trips a little far from my old home. He was asking me about finding berries," I replied.

"Oh, so you do your own fishing? Wait, what am I saying…" Crystal stopped herself, suddenly realizing what she was saying. "You're a _Water _type, so of course you should be good at swimming!" The Cleffa face pawed, almost embarrassed from her silly question.

"Well, no worries, it's fine. After all, I'm pretty sure not all Water type Pokemon fish like I do," I chuckled, gently patting the Normal types head reassuringly.

"I've never fished before," Lazuli mentioned, watching Crystal and I as we spoke. "What's it like to go fishing?" The Azurill had curiosity plastered on his face.

"Well, uh… I basically either catch fish in shallow lakes that I'm able to walk in, or I swim in bigger and deeper lakes, and catch them like that," I explained, motioning to my jaws.

"So, you can swim faster than the fish?" Lazuli asked, eyes widening a little.

"Yep, although sometimes they manage to outspeed me." I admitted, scratching behind my neck. "But, if I can get the jump on them before they notice, they're never fast enough," I explained again, using my claws to gesture the way I would jump on the fish.

"Never, I doubt that," Stella intervened, her turn to include herself in the conversation we were having at the table. I got a bit nervous with the attention being all on me.

"Well... uh, maybe not _never_, but it's often at least." With that, she just shrugged as a response.

"Here you go, Dax." Suddenly, a plate had been gently placed in front of me, and I looked up to see Rudy smiling down at me.

"Oh! Thanks, Rudy." I said, a little surprised by the sudden action.

"No problem! Just try not to eat it too quickly this time. Enjoy the flavor in every bite," she said with a small chuckle.

"Alright," I said, feeling a little embarrassed.

"If anyone else wants seconds just let me know, okay?" She told the others at the table.

"Okay!" they all replied. With that, she walked off and headed back to her table. I took a much smaller bite of my food, giving myself a chance to really get the flavor, and it was amazing. I've never eaten a cooked fish before, and I don't think I ever want to go back to eating raw. This was just way too good to pass up. After taking a few bites, I took a drink of the water placed next to me.

"So, where exactly did you live before this?" Stella asked.

"Well, uh…" I didn't really know how to answer, so I said it simply, "I lived in a cave."

"A cave? Why would ever want to live in one of those?" she asked.

"Well… I… thought it was cool," I said, getting a bit defensive. She scoffed a bit.

"I don't see how you could," she replied.

"That's because you're so used to living in places like this," Crystal butted in, looking in my direction. "I think a cave sounds awesome."

"I don't see how you'd want to live in a cave," Stella argued, shaking her head dismissively. "Imagine all the dirt and stuff."

"I kept it pretty clean actually," I said, matter-of-factly. "I used Water Gun on places if it ever got dirty. Plus, it was shaded from the sun, so it kept me from getting hot or having the sun in my eyes."

"That sounds nice!" Crystal replied, seemingly impressed. Meanwhile, I could hear Stella huff a bit.

"Well… guess it doesn't sound all that bad," Stella coughed, looking away. "I'd still prefer living here though."

"Well, I gotta say, this place seems to be really nice, so I can see what you mean," I replied while I looked over at Zen, who seemed to be done eating his first piece, so I continued to eat mine a bit more. After a bit of silence, I was nearly done eating my second piece, and Zen had finished his off.

"So uh, Cute Crew? How exactly did you guys become a team?" I asked, generally. They looked at each other. Eventually, Crystal spoke up first.

"Well, for one, we all joined at different times as guild members, similarly to how you did." She began, "I came here from my home; hearing about this place, I signed up. I thought it would be a good way to travel around, and help some people too. Glad my parents were all for it."

"I joined 'cause I thought it would be fun! I told my family I wanted to be an explorer, and they were all for it, you get to see and do really cool things, and helping people is like, super nice, and fun too! You know?!" Lazuli said while bouncing up and down.

"I joined to take care of bad Pokemon who were hurting others, which helps those Pokemon out too. I don't like when others do bad things like that; it's wrong, so I joined to put those baddies in their place." Stella said.

"Hmm, okay, but why did you guys join together as a team?" I asked, tilting my head.

"Well, I don't know really, it just sort of happened. We all joined at around the same time, and we hung out a lot since we were trainees here, and we eventually decided we'd join up as one team!" Lazuli responded, bouncing in his chair.

"That's basically it," Crystal replied.

"Mhm," Stella agreed, finishing it up.

"I see… so in short, you all seem to want to help people, right?" I asked once more.

"I mean, that is what a guild _does_, you know?" Crystal asked rhetorically, "I know we get paid and such to do it, but still it's helping others who really need help, and sometimes you don't even get a reward for it, but it helps them. The satisfaction that you'd get for helping is good enough for me."

"I guess so," I said, understanding slightly, "It's all still new to me, so I didn't think this kind of thing existed."

"Well, I didn't really know about it much either," Zen said, joining in while I took a bite of my food. Once I swallowed, I replied, "Wait, so you didn't know about it either?" He shook his head.

"Nope, I didn't learn about it 'til I joined." He responded, but then got out of his seat. "Also, give me a minute; I'm gonna see if I can get more from Rudy." And with that, he walked away. Regardless, I was still confused about something; he said he didn't learn about the guild until he joined it, but I don't think I fully understood what he meant by that. I was probably overthinking it.

Putting the thoughts behind me for the meantime, I glanced around the room once more, and I noticed the shop owners; the two electrical mice seemed to be having an argument, or contest, something like that. They seemed to be eyeing each other down as they ate really fast, while Sly was cheering on for the both of them. I then shifted my view to Pythagoras and Mucosa, who were eating together. Rudy and Zen seemed to be getting another plate, and the Forces of Nature seemed to be just talking. I'd basically met everyone else, but those three were the only ones I really hadn't talked to at all. While Zen was away, I finished up my plate.

Once Zen and Rudy got back to the table and sat down with his plate in paw, I asked him something.

"Hey Zen? Mind if I go and talk to the Forces of Nature real fast? I'd like to talk to them."

"Oh! Sure go right ahead, I forgot you hadn't even talked to them yet." He said, taking ahold of his new fishy meal. "I'll eat, then I'll come over to you."

"Alright, see ya over there then." I said, getting up from the table and made my way across the room. Soon, I got to the table of the Forces of Nature. I looked up to the charmeleon with the orange scarf.

"Uh, hello there," I said to them. In response, the Charmeleon looked down and waved a bit.

"Ah, hey." His voice was clearly male, but a tad bit older than I had expected.

"You guys mind if I sit with you for a minute?" I asked, scratching the back of my head with nervousness. He nodded to me.

"Shoot, not at all," He responded, "Come on up here." With that, I jumped up onto the table with them.

"Hey," I said, facing the Servine with the turquoise scarf, and the Jolteon with the green scarf.

"Oh hey!" The electro-dog greeted.

"Yo," the snake said with a cool tone.

"So, you're Dax right? Nice to meet you, I'm Ryder," said the Charmeleon.

"Nice to meet you," I replied.

"And I'm Sparky," said the Jolteon.

"Monty here," said the Servine.

"Ryder, Sparky, and Monty, got it." I said, looking at the three. "Cool, it's nice to meet you all."

"It's good to meet you as well, cool to see a water type join us," Sparky said.

"Wait, is Lazuli not a water type?" I asked, confused.

"No, he's not, not yet at least." Monty said, matter-of-factly. "He does become one once he evolves though. How are we going to deal with a hyper Azumarill?"

"I mean hey, it's not that bad, you know?" Sparky replied, shrugging a bit.

"Haha, yeah, he's hyper I will say, but everyone here seems pretty alright," I said, chuckling a bit.

"Well, I'm glad you like everyone so far," Ryder looked over to me, "Speaking of which, it's cool to see a new team form with you and Zen."

"Is it really that much of an achievement?" I asked tilting my head to the side. I wasn't entirely sure if I understood what he meant by that statement.

"Of course it is!" Sparky exclaimed, speaking up once more. "Another team of Pokemon who are willing to help others who are in need; now that's definitely an achievement for the guild, is it not one for you?"

"Well, I suppose it is quite an achievement. Sorry, all of this is just really new to me, is all." I said apologetically.

"No problem with that at all!" Monty acknowledged with a reassuring smile.

"Yeah, makes me think of the good old days," Ryder said, using a claw to scratch under his chin. "We all were like you when we first started our lives as an explorer." I nodded my head, understanding what they were saying. I would eventually be getting used to my surroundings and my work. This team seems to be strong, and capable of many things. It makes me wonder...

"Who's the leader of your team?" I asked, looking at all three members.

"That would be me," Ryder said, grinning proudly.

"Ah cool. So, are you guys like, the most skilled team here?" I questioned, looking around at all of the teams to help with my confirmation.

"Well... Outside of the leaders, we're the oldest team here." The Electric type began to speak with a brief explanation. "I suppose you could say when it comes to the teams, we're the most experienced."

"I see… how'd you guys join the guild?" Another question came from me. I was very curious, and my mind kept wandering around with these questions.

"Well, we all kind of grew up together." Ryder replied.

"Wait, really?" My eyes widened at the response, taken aback.

"It's true; we've been friends since we were kids, then Ryder here found out about this place and what was going on here," Monty spoke next, as if they were taking turns to speak.

"After some discussion between ourselves, along with my parents, we all decided to head out here. Shortly after learning everything, we became The Forces of Nature," Sparky explained last. I nodded my head, taking in the information.

"How long have you guys been here?"

"Well, our training ended about a year ago, and usually teams would move away to do new things, but we like it here, so we decided we would be staying here permanently." The Charmeleon replied.

"Ah I see, but do you guys ever visit family?" My curiosity got the best of me on this one. I wanted to know, if I ever wanted to visit mine someday.

"Of course!" Sparky said with a reassuring tone, smiling a bit. "We check in regularly from time to time; Pythagoras won't stop you at all if you want to go see family or have personal things you need to take care of."

"Yeah, even though me and Ryder and moved away from our parents a while back, we usually check in from time to time." Monty explained, before he had a question of his own. "What about you, kid?"

"I moved away from my family too; been a while since I've seen them, but last time I went to see them, they seemed fine," I spoke, remembering the time I've last seen them.

"Ah, so you've been living on your own?" Ryder asked.

"Yep, I've been living in my own cave, and usually hunted fish." I explained.

"Living in nature, sounds interesting," Sparky acknowledged.

"Yeah, the cave I lived in was pretty cool, I even met some travelers sometimes, it wasn't bad." I said in reply.

"So, why come here then? If what you thought you had was fine?" Monty asked curiously, his head tilted to the side.

"Well… I guess it was just after weighing my options; this would be a change of pace that I really needed, and would make things easier on me. I have had trouble finding food in the past, so this stops me from potentially going hungry, and well, I guess helping people is a good addition as well," I explained thoughtfully. Everyone nodded their heads.

"Well, you won't be doing anything too crazy, and don't worry; if you or Zen need any help with anything, just let any one of us know. I'm sure anyone here will be happy to help." Ryder said with a small smile.

"Thanks, the Cute Crew and everyone here seems really nice… maybe a tad quirky, however," I said truthfully, a chuckle escaping my lips.

"Yep haha, but hey, we're all like that you know?" Sparky chuckled himself, joining me.

"Yep… speaking of which, I have a question." I mentioned, with yet _another_ question in mind.

"Sure, what's up?" Ryder asked while the other two looked at me curiously.

"What do you guys think of Zen? I don't really know much about him other than what I've learned of him today. He seems like a good person, but I just wanted to know what you guys knew or thought about him," This didn't seem like a bad question to ask in my mind, but it was true. I didn't really know much about Zen, and I just wanted to know if the others had any good things to say about him. They looked at each other for a sec before Monty spoke up.

"To be honest, I find him pretty weird."

Wow. That… was not what I was expecting.

"Hey man, that's pretty harsh." Sparky said, gently punching his partner in the shoulder.

"Well, I'm just being honest here; you know the way he acts is a bit off." Monty argued back, seemingly rubbing his shoulder.

"Wait, what? What do you mean by that?" I asked, considerably confused now. I had seen nothing wrong with Zen other than him feeling happy and hyper. I don't get what was wrong with this side of his personality.

"He acts unusually happy all the time," Monty admitted, blinking.

"And? What's your point? Lazuli seems to act the same way, yet Zen comes off as weird? They both seem to be acting the same way!" I retorted, my turn to argue against his opinion.

"I don't think that's what he means. Monty lay off," Ryder growled softly, warning his partner. Monty looked away, feeling bad by the choice of his words.

"S-sorry, I got carried away."

Ryder turned to me, "What he means by that is that he isn't judging him by his happy personality or how hyper Zen can get, it's just how long and how frequent it is."

"Wait, what? I don't follow." I replied with even more confusion written on my face.

"Well, you've only known him for a day, so this will just be something you'll probably get used to. We just think it gets on Monty's nerves a bit," Ryder continued to explain. "Basically Zen, even when bad things happen, he keeps himself upbeat, and acts as if nothing is wrong. Of course, that might not necessarily be a bad thing, it means he can stay calm a lot of the time which is good, but... It's like even when something really bad happens, he won't even act like it's a bad thing, and tries to look for a positive, even if there isn't one. Lazuli may be hyper and happy, but I've seen him upset and sad before. I don't think any of us here have seen that from Zen."

"But, why's that weird?" I asked, trying to understand the reasoning. "I don't get what's wrong with it."

"Well, maybe you don't see it that way. I personally just find it a tad odd, but, I don't feel like everyone shares that feeling, you know?" Ryder said. "We just all think differently in the end."

"Do… you guys not like Zen?" I asked with a visible frown on my face.

"What… ugh, me and my big mouth." The Servine mumbled to himself, and sighed, shaking his head dismissively. "No, I don't dislike Zen, it just can be a bit annoying when he acts as if nothing is wrong. I shouldn't have said anything stupid."

"I don't have any issue with him. I think that, in Lazuli's case, he's able to really lighten the mood when needed. It's just a quirk we've noticed with him is all," The Jolteon added.

"Yeah, it's not really a big deal, otherwise we think he's pretty cool," Ryder finalized with a nod of his head.

"Well, that's good to hear at least, sorry about starting that," I spoke quietly towards the end, partially regretting having asked that question.

"No, it's really our fault, but did you have any other questions?" This time it was Ryder's turn to ask me a question.

"Uh, well… when did Zen join? I know he's the most recent member, but how and why did he join?" I questioned.

"Uh… well, it's been a little while since he's joined. Maybe a few weeks after the Cute Crew became an official team, I believe, but none of us know why he joined," Sparky explained with a shrug. Seems like it was a mystery to everyone.

"Wait? So, none of you know?" I asked with a surprised tone, cocking my head to the side. Ryder shook his head.

"Not really; we've discussed this with Pythagoras before, but he wouldn't really talk about it. Though, all we really know is that Rudy and Pythagoras went out on some kind of mission, probably to chase down some outlaw. They completed their mission and on their way back or sometime during the trek back, they came across Zen. My guess is they don't bring it up because the outlaw had held him captive or something like that. Either way, they don't talk about it. Zen's never brought it up, and as soon as they brought him here, he joined, which I still find odd."

"Wait, he didn't even question it?" My eyes widened a little.

"You mean, like he didn't even consider not joining?" He asked me. I nodded in response to his question.

"That, we don't know either. When they got back, he was with them, and said he was going to join. He was super happy, and was happy about meeting everyone as well," The Charmeleon said casually.

"Well, I'm glad he's happy. I wonder what happened?" I wondered aloud.

"Well, whatever it was, it seems to not bother him anymore," Sparky replied, voicing his opinion.

"Yeah, seems that way," I nodded in agreement.

Speaking of the Zorua, I noticed that he came running up to us. I guess he finished his second meal.

"Hey, guys!"

"Zen, hey! All done?" I asked.

"Yep! Mind if I take a seat?" He asked, gesturing with his paw. I moved over a bit and motioned him up. He jumped up onto the table next to me.

"Hey, guys!" He said cheerfully.

"Heya Zen, congrats on yours and Dax's team," The Jolteon said with a smile.

"Thanks Sparky!" Zen replied.

"What was your team name again? Sorry I forgot," Monty asked, trying to think.

"No problem, it's Team Tsunami," I said.

"Oh! That's not bad actually, neat name," His eyes perked up at the name.

"Thanks!" Zen and I said in-sync, together.

"So you two, how's it feel to be on a team together?" Ryder asked. Zen spoke up first, "It feels awesome! Having a team name, being able to finally go on some real jobs, and I met a new friend!" Then, I went next, "Basically the same here; met a new friend, got new place to live, and basically everything else he said."

"Haha, good to see the enthusiasm running high," The Charmeleon grinned, seemingly understanding the feeling.

"So, you planning on taking your first mission tomorrow?" Monty asked, clapping his short, leafy limbs together.

"If there are any available, yeah!" The Zorua yipped excitedly.

"There should be something for you, don't worry," Sparky chuckled at the excitement.

"Yeah, we'll have to start with small missions before we're allowed to take on the bigger ones, but that works out! It gives Dax the opportunity to learn how all of this works." Zen nodded with a small smile.

"Yeah, I still don't know enough about this, how much do you know Zen?" I asked him.

"Let's see… uh, that might be too much to discuss tonight, maybe we learn that as we actually do missions?" He thought aloud with curiosity, wondering the same thing himself.

"Wait, how much do you know?" I asked lowly, expecting a good answer.

"Believe it or not, Zen spent a lot of time asking us questions, and doing whatever he can to find out information on our missions. I don't know how you were able to just go through all of that without getting bored," The Service spoke, looking down at the Zorua.

Zen gave an embarrassed chuckle, "Well, I just really wanted to learn about how it all worked I guess, so I guess I just got carried away."

"No wonder you were so ready to get started," I realized. If he had done that, it would explain why he was so eager to be on a team. Probably learning about it didn't help calm it down, it just made him feel even more excited.

"Yeah… I guess I really did go overboard." He said with a big grin.

"Well then, that just means you know enough to help me learn, you are a team leader after all," I said.

"Oh yeah… I forgot, I am team leader, aren't I?!" Zen smiled.

"Yep! So, make sure to help me learn this stuff! I'm counting on you," I exclaimed. He nodded, "You got it!"

Suddenly Pythagoras started flying around the eating area, looking around at everyone and their tables.

"Has everyone finished up?" His main head announced, asking around. Everyone gave out sounds or motions to show they were done with their meal. I looked around to see that it was indeed true.

"Alright then, everyone go on ahead and try to get some rest, we'll have new missions posted in the morning. No rush, however, but do try to get decent sleep so you're not tired for another big day tomorrow." The Hydreigon's softer, more timid head said.

"But hey, be prepared to work HARD tomorrow morning!" The Hydreigon's louder, more brasher head exclaimed, but ultimately got scolded quietly by the main head as they left everyone else be. With that, everyone gave a quick reply or motion, and began to head out of the eating area.

"Well, we're gonna head on and get some sleep, you two don't stay up late alright?" Ryder questioned the both of us.

"Alright, see ya guys!" Zen said, waving his paw.

"Talk to you guys later!" I smiled. They waved and headed up the stairs to the next floor. I took a look back at the Zorua.

"So, uh... what now?" I asked.

"Well, we can do whatever we'd like until we want to sleep. There's not really a strict curfew here." He replied.

"Huh…" I then realized, "Oh! Uh, where do we sleep exactly? I haven't seen the location we will be residing for sleep."

"Oh! Right, uh, Pythagoras!" He called aloud, catching the Dragon's attention. Pythagoras was seemingly about to head to his office, but he turned and flew over to us.

"Yes, you two? Yeah, what do you want?! I-is everything okay?"

"So, Dax is going to be living in my house right?" Zen asked.

"Oh right, we did forget one thing; first we'll get the bedding, then we'll get the team name for your door," Pythagoras' main head explained, while the other two nodded, one more aggressive and one more softer than the other.

"Oh cool, thanks!" The Zorua thanked, looking up at the three-headed Dragon type. "We'll wait for you up there, okay?"

"We won't be long, so don't worry." The main head said, "We'll be up there in a minute, just gotta do other crap first, smell ya later, newbiess!" The more rough head said with a fierce aggressiveness, "F-fret not, we'll try to be fast, our bad," The more timid head said with an immense amount of nervousness in their voice. With that, the three-headed dragon left us and went off to do what they needed to do. Honestly, it must be tough trying to deal with two additional heads that speak for themselves.

"Well, let's head up there; I'll give you the house tour." He smiled excitedly, running towards a set of stairs.

"Alright," I said to him, following him closely behind. As we headed upstairs, I took notice of the time, and looked out; it seemed like the sun was setting, which means it would be dark soon, obviously. As we headed up, I noticed the houses, and the Cute Crew hanging out in front of what I believed to be their house. Didn't notice it before, but it seemed they had some ribbons and flowers decorated on the outside.

"Oh heya! Dax, I hope you enjoyed dinner and the first night here," Crystal said with a smile.

"Thanks! I did, it was really good, and I can't wait to try what Rudy makes tomorrow," I said, eyes full of wonder. Her cooking was absolutely delicious.

"Well, we're heading off to bed for now," Stella said as she walked inside, waving her paw.

"Ah, well good night." I got no reply from her. I heard Crystal sigh softly.

"Ugh, sorry that I forgot to mention this, but sorry about Stella." Crystal apologized, head lowered slightly. "She's, well... she can be a bit rude sometimes. Especially when she's tired."

"But she's really nice! I promise!" Lazuli hopped into the conversation (pun intended) with pleading eyes.

"It's not a big deal, so don't worry about it." I dismissed, chuckling nervously.

"Well, g'night you guys! See y'all in the morning!" Lazuli said, bouncing back into their house.

"Night!" We said back to the Azurill.

"Same here! Good night, you two," Crystal said walking in, as we wished the same for her as well.

With that, we passed by one of the bigger homes which had a light on inside. I assumed this was Rudy's, since Mucosa was a bit further ahead. She gave us a wave goodnight before heading inside her own house as well.

"Alright, here's mine!" Zen exclaimed, our short walk ending. His house was one of the smaller ones, which made sense for his size. It was the same kind of shape as the Cute Crew's; a bit of a roundish shape going on with it. While it was small, it wasn't exactly too small, yet it was big enough to where if we grew, we could still fit inside… _probably._

"This looks nice, so I'll be staying here?" I asked, eyes wandering around the outside.

"Yep! Since we're a team, we share the same house!" He said with a small, happy bounce.

"Cool, let's go inside then." I said. Once I entered the house, I noticed a very simple layout. Wood flooring, a small carpet, and some sort of wooden cabinetry that seemed to hold books. In the back, I noticed a staircase that made the flooring go up a bit higher than the rest of the house. Past the stairs were two windows, and bedding that I guessed was where Zen sleeps.

"Well? What do you think?" He asked, awaiting my response to what my opinion on his household was.

"It's really nice, actually," I said truthfully. This felt much more like a home than the cave I used to reside in. Even though I liked my cozy cave, the little things in here are what really caught my eye.

"Thanks!" Zen said with a sheepish smile, "I know it's not decorated like the others, but I think I did good enough on it." I looked at the bookshelf and saw some rocks up there. Curious, I turned to them and pointed at them.

"What's this stuff?" I asked. It appeared to look like crystals of different colors.

"Nothing special, really; I just asked if anyone ever found anything cool while out on their missions. Everyone here seems to at least find me one crystal or rock that was cool, even a sea shell here and there.." The Zorua explained. Seemed to me he had a thing for _knick knacks_.

"So, you like collecting?" I asked.

"A little? I don't think I'm super into it, but the ones I do have are really nice," Zen replied with a small nod of his head.

"I see, then what's with the books?" I questioned.

"Well uh… like The Forces of Nature said before, that's what I used to learn." He admitted.

"Wait, all of these!?" I asked, dumbfounded. There were a lot of books on this shelf, and some were pretty big. It's unbelievable to think that he read all of them.

"Well, I didn't memorize every single thing, but I did learn a good bit, such as the different types of Pokemon, stuff on other guilds, what Pokemon are capable of, myths and mysteries..." He went down the list.

"You studied a lot, it seems." I said.

"I mean, even then I haven't learned everything, but I still learned a lot, I think," Zen replied.

"That's still impressive." I nodded, clearly impressed.

"Well, it's not that impressive." He said chuckling.

"You're joking right? You've gone through each and every one of these books, and yet you're acting like this isn't an accomplishment? You're already prepared for tomorrow, and you're gonna be able to teach me, that seems like a lot to have already done you know?" I stated almost matter-of-factly.

"Wow, uh... thanks! Again, as leader, I'll be sure to help in whatever way I can!" he said with a smile.

"Thanks, but uh, do you think I need to learn anything in those books?" I asked.

"Well, not really, I don't think. I did it 'cause, you know, I wanted to do it. Most of these books don't even really tell about stuff involved with guild work, and whatever is I can just tell you if it ever comes up… also, you know all Pokemon types right?" he asked. I nodded, "Yeah, I know the types, just not every single Pokemon in them. Speaking of which, is Lazuli actually not a Water type?"

"Nope, he's a Normal and a Fairy type." Zen replied with the facts, seemingly quickly.

"Huh… he doesn't really look the part, that's for sure." I said almost shamelessly.

"Trust me, I think everyone has made that mistake with someone before." Zen said reassuringly.

"I guess, but I just feel stupid when I don't know it." I admitted with a frown.

"But, you aren't stupid though! You don't gotta say that." The Zorua smiled.

"I guess so," I replied. At that moment, I then heard the sound of flapping wings.

"Hey, you two in there?" I heard Pythagoras' voice. Walking out of the house, we say that the leader of the guild had arrived.

"Hey Pythagoras!" Greeted Zen.

"Hey there, got the bedding here for Dax, and another thing here," I looked in his other heads, which held the bedding, and a little plaque thing in the other. The head with the bedding dropped it in front of me, groaning with disgust.

"Ugh, I hate the taste of these things! Next time, one of you two hold it, I ain't doing it again." The clearly disgruntled brash head angrily said to the others, which made me laugh a bit.

"Hey, thanks for the bed!" The specific head looked at me for a moment, but looked away.

"Eh, no worries, newbie." The head replied with a grumble.

"A-also, there's this." Pythagoras' third head moved up to us, which held a small golden sign type of thing.

"What's this for?" I asked.

"Oh right, our sign!" Zen yipped excitedly.

"Sign?" I asked, tilting my head confusingly.

"He's right," Pythagoras's main head started, "It's a sign that I will set up above the door of the house. Now that you have a team name, this is your team house."

"Wow, that's cool!" I grinned. Wish I could have labelled my cave like that back then. Zen and I moved out of the way as Pythagoras set up the sign. He seemed to be extra careful with it, and soon enough it was locked in place right above the door. 'Team Tsunami', it read.

"There you go, you two. Is there anything else either of you need before I head off?" The main head of his asked, looking at both of us younger Pokemon. Thinking for a moment, nothing managed to come up.

"Unless I have any questions for you tomorrow, I'm good for now."

"Same here!" Zen added.

"Alright then, you two; have a good night." The main head said of Pythagoras said, bowing slightly, "G'night, you runts; don't let the bed-Joltiks bite!" the brash head exclaimed, laughing slightly in a bit of a mocking tone, "N-night, you two," the timid head said nervously. And with that, Pythagoras then flew over to the house that Mucosa entered into earlier.

Then, Zen took himself inside as I carried in my new bedding. After getting a feel of it; it was soft, really soft. I couldn't wait to see how comfortable it will be once I lay on it.

"Here Dax, you can set your bed up here next to mine." Zen stated, then moved his bedding over a little in order to leave some space for my own.

"Okay." I nodded as I walked up the steps, setting my bedding down to the right of his.

"Well, try it out!" He urged, jumping on his own.

I gave myself a sec, then sat myself in a comfortable position, and _wow_! This was comfortable, and way better than the leaves I used to use.

"Wow… this is amazing, what's this stuff made out of?!"

"I'm not too sure actually, I know they're made naturally, it isn't like, fur or anything," Zen said.

"Well I hope it's not." I looked down at the bedding, feeling it with my small claws.

"It's not, I know that for a fact, I just don't know what exactly it's made out of," The Zorua shrugged. "But how is it?"

"Amazing, as I said before, way better than anything I ever made for a bed," I said curling up in it.

"Awesome, glad it works for you," he said. "So, you wanna go on ahead and sleep, or do you want to wait a little while?"

"I think I've moved around too much today, maybe it's best if I do go ahead and get some sleep." I said thinking it over.

"Alright then, yeah it's dark now anyways, we should probably sleep." Zen agreed. I started already feeling myself get sleepy, the new bed was just so comfortable, I couldn't believe it, I let out a yawn.

Zen laid down in his as well, "So, let's hope for a good mission tomorrow okay?"

"Yeah… here's hoping." I said, but before sleeping, I forgot I hadn't asked him this.

"Hey, Zen?" I started.

"Yeah?" he said lifting his head a little.

"Why did you join the guild?" I asked.

He didn't respond.

"Zen?" I asked again.

"Sorry, do you mind if I tell you later? I promise I'll tell you, but just not now, is that okay?" He said turning to me with a small smile.

"Uh… sure, but why?" I asked.

"It's uh, kind of a long story. So, maybe later, okay?" He said.

"Oh… well," I thought for a moment, I might have been being rude, he possible could not feel comfortable talking about it, with that outlaw and all. Yeah, I think I should stop.

"Alright, no worries, later it is. Whenever you feel is best."

"Okay, cool! Thanks!" He said. cheerful as ever.

"You don't gotta thank me, it's fine. Anyways, have a good night okay?" I said.

"Thanks, have a good night too," he said as he lay back down. I felt myself getting sleepier now that I laid my head back down, I started to have my eyes close, but before I could sleep I heard Zen say one last thing.

"Can't wait for tomorrow," he said quietly. I paused for a minute, and I think I felt the same.

"Yeah, same here."

I closed my eyes all the way, and not too long after, I was called into sleep.

(Author's Note: Thanks once again to my beta readers Chlooepm, and Fran for helping edit and look over the chapter. Extra thanks to the supporters and other helpers i've had for this story, Oddball, BlueHairCruse, Dipper, Transcendent, Moonminun, HattedClown, Chissairon, Cozy, Luanastar, and Louis, You're all amazing, thank you so much.)


	3. Chapter 3

After what felt like a short while, I slowly but surely had consciousness return to me. I slowly stretched, starting with my arms, my jaws opening wide with a yawn, my tail fidgeting as I stretched, and a few tears squeezed from my eyes.

As I rubbed my eyes, I had realized just how great of a sleep I had, I felt refreshed and relaxed. I started to get my bearings, ready to start my day as usual, catching me some breakfast. I opened my eyes, ready to see my usual surroundings.

I honestly felt stupid looking around, how did I forget that fast? One look around at where I was made me remember that I wasn't living at my cave anymore. I was living in this small tree house in a guild. I looked down at my bedding, remembering this is what I slept on last night. I forgot how comfortable this thing was, and as soon as I realized, I almost wanted to lay back down again.

I looked across from me, to see Zen still asleep. He seemed to be sprawled out weirdly in his bed with all his legs spread out, each in a different way. He wasn't like this last night, so my guess was he must fidget in his sleep… Wonder if I do that?

I was a bit skeptical on what I was supposed to do now. Was I supposed to go out? I think I might have missed what to do in the morning, or maybe it wasn't explained?

I thought of waking Zen up, but I couldn't really tell how early it was, so I went to get a better look. I quietly walked to the window and took a peek outside, trying to see where the sun was. I couldn't really get a good look at where the sun was, but I could tell from the sky that it had to have been early.

"Hello…?" I heard someone quietly say. I poked my nose around to see a familiar face. I noticed Rudy's head at the door peeking in, quickly noticing me, "Ah, Dax! Hi," She tried to keep her voice low noticing Zen was asleep.

"Hey!" I said back, keeping my voice low as well. I walked over to the doorway to see her.

"You're up early," she noted, looking at my state up and down.

"Yeah, I'm kinda used to it, just didn't know how early I got up today," I replied.

"Well that's good, we usually try to get everyone up early anyways," she said.

I took a long around and she was right, Cute Crew, and the Forces of Nature were already moving, some slower than others, they must have just woken up too.

"You guys like starting early?" I asked.

"Yeah, that's the gist of it, so anywho, mind waking up Zen? Usually I'm the one to do it, but since you're already up I'll be able to go ahead and get started on things," explained Rudy.

"Oh uh, sure I'll wake em,"

"Great! Thanks, meet us in the cafeteria, everyone will be picking up breakfast," she said.

"Okay!" I called as she walked off.

I didn't hear they had breakfast yesterday, I was sure I didn't, but that was reassuring to hear… I am hoping it's more fish honestly.

I went back inside and went over to Zen, who seemed to still be caught in sleep. I walked over to him. I wanted to wake him up simply, so I lightly tapped him with my paw.

"Hey! Zen! Wake up!" I raised my voice a little.

He quickly jumped up, head bobbing left and right, and looked at me, "Oh! Hey Dax!"

I was surprised at how fast he was moving, "Hey, Rudy asked me to wake you up."

"Oh! Cool, so she did stop by, right? she ussually makes sure I get up on time." Next, Dax then seemed to get really excited, hopping around prolifically. "So, you ready for your first day!? This is gonna be, AWESOME!"

The amount of energy he had was already making my head spin, "How can you be so active this early?" I asked in shock.

"Huh?" He seemed confused, but had a giddy smile like normal.

I gave a huff, "Know what? Nevermind. So uh, Rudy mentioned breakfast?"

"Oh! Oh wait we didn't tell you did we?" Dax blurted, scratching the top of his head.

I shook my head at him.

He gave himself a knock on the head, "Well, we get a small meal in the mornings to keep us going till dinner, nothing big like night though, so that usually means no fish… sorry."

"It's alright, no need to say sorry," I assured. Although, I was a little disappointed I wouldn't get fish, but it wasn't his fault.

He got his smile back, "Alright come on, let's get our food, and I'll show you the ropes!" He hopped out of our house, and motioned for me.

I followed him out of the house complex, where I saw the magnificent Rudy handing out berries to the teams in the dining hall. The Cute Crew had gotten theirs and headed over to the tables to eat. I saw Pythagoras and Mucosa over at the barricades, and looking towards the forest.

"Here you two; you both were the last ones," Rudy walked up to us, and handed me four berries, "There ya are, two for each of you."

"Thanks Rudy!" Zen.

"Oh uh, thank you Rudy!" I said after Zen, making sure I didn't forget.

She gave a nod and walked back, and started to put stuff away. Zen tapped me to follow him, and I did so, making sure I didn't drop the berries. He went to go sit with the Cute Crew again, it seemed they are who he usually hangs around huh?

"Need help?" Zen asked, getting up onto the table.

"Nah, I got it don't worry, I've handled worse," I said, hopping up onto the chair.

I sat down the berries and was greeted by a loud, high pitched voice, "MORNING DAX!" That was Lazuli.

"How was your first night?" Crystal asked.

"It was actually really nice! I haven't slept that well in my life," I answered.

"Duh, these people make the best beds," Stella added.

"I can jump on mine and nothing bad happens!" Lazuli exclaimed.

"... Has you jumping caused bad things to happened?" I asked worriedly.

"Hahaha! No need to answer that!" Crystal chimed in.

"Okayyyyy," I backed off.

"So, any missions chosen yet guys?" Zen asked.

"Yep, simple one, just gotta find something someone lost, honestly though, some of these things pokemon really do make a big deal out of," Stella said.

"Huh?" I was curious on what she meant.

"Huff, so basically like, some of these jobs pokemon give us are really, non issues, like one guy wanted us to find a berry he lost, not just get him a new berry, the exact one he lost!" she said.

"What? That sounds stupid, why didn't he just want a new one?" I asked.

"Yeah, I've heard this before, and I still don't get it," Zen shook his head.

"Like, if it was treasure, I get that, but we just decided to get him a new berry, might seem a bit rude, but really, it's just a berry," Crystal said.

"Are most missions like that?" I asked worried I'd be dealing with that.

"Not really, most of them are pokemon who actually really do need help, that is one we just find funny from time to time," Crystal said after eating one of her berries.

"We'll find whatever that pokemon lost! Cause we're the Cute Crew!" Lazuli exclaimed.

The eevee facepalmed, "We. Have. Not. Even started yet, Lazuli," Stella hissed with a hint of irritation.

"But we will! And when we do, we'll find it!" he bounced.

I heard Zen give a little laugh, and I couldn't help but make one as well. They finished up and headed out, while Zen and I stayed to finish off our berries.

"So uh.. Zen?" began myself.

"Yes Dauz?" he replied with his mouth full.

"Well you said you'd be showing me the ropes on these missions, and I know you've given me like, ideas of what to expect but, I don't really follow what I'm supposed to do, how I'm going to do it, or even what mission I'm going to be doing," I explained.

He swallowed and looked down, "Hm… well first we need to figure out what missions we're going to do…"

"Yeah… do you have an idea?" I questioned him again.

"Well… not sure, I know we want to start with something small, so you can get used to it..." He said.

"Well… I don't really know what we can do," I answered, and ate one of my berries.

"Hey kids," I turned to see Mucosa had walked over to our table.

"Oh Mucosa! How's it going?" Zen asked.

"Hey Mucosa," I said to her.

"Haha hey, how's it going you two?" she asked.

"Oh uh… going great!" Zen hesitated there.

"Really? Cause it sounded like you were having a bit of trouble," she caught him.

"B-but, uhhh," Zen tried to think of a response.

"Yeah, we're both having trouble thinking of what job we want to take, we aren't sure what to start with," I explained to the dragon.

"Ohhh, I see, I get why though, first mission is always the hardest to choose, and not all of them are just thrown right at you," Mucosa added.

"Yeah… do you have any ideas?" I asked.

"Well let me think… I don't have anything specific in mind, but here's an idea, why not go with something you're already good at doing, if you know how to do it, won't be too bad right?" she suggested.

"Huh… that sounds good, but I don't really-" Before I could finish, I was cut off by my jumpy cohort.

Zen had jumped up, "I GOT IT! Dax come on!" He zoomed out of his seat, and straight over to the stairs.

"UH! Thanks Mucosa!" I yelled off trying to keep up with Zen.

I heard her yell back, "No problem!" followed by a few laughs.

I was to the stairs as I saw Zen cut a corner to his left. I carefully hopped stair by stair til I made it to the ground floor. There, I saw Zen at the board with the jobs on it.

"Let's see, let's see, come on there's got to be one here," I heard him say.

"Uh… Zen what got you so excited?" I tried to ask, but was ignored.

"Mmmm, AH THERE!" He moved forward a little and grabbed one of the papers, holding it up to me.

"Raight thwr si?" he spoke with the paper in his mouth.

I looked at the paper, and I read aloud, "Need help catching… a fish?" That sentence made me perk up.

Zen laid the paper down, "As soon as Mucosa said to try something you're good at, I thought about yesterday, how you were fishing, so I went to see if there was anyone asking for that, and thankfully there you have it!"

"Wow, that's not a bad call actually, so what are they asking for?" I asked.

"Says here that they want a certain fish caught, a blue striped bass," Zen said.

I recognized that, "Blue striped bass? I've heard that before, from what I remember they're pretty rare," from experience, I'd only ever found a few in my entire life.

"Well, the good news is that whoever requested this gave us a location of one," Zen said.

"Oh really?" I asked.

"Yep, we just have to head to this lake," Zen explained.

"Wait but, if they know where it is, why don't they catch it?" I asked.

"Hmm… seems here that their bait doesn't work, the fish are too smart for it," Zen explained.

"Oh huh, so they aren't a water type," I said.

"Probably not, but thankfully, I don't think you'll have any trouble catching it!" Zen reassured.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" I asked.

"Let's go!" Zen ushered.

"Just a second you two," I turned around to see Pythagoras looking at us.

"What's wrong?" Zen asked.

"You made sure that was a beginner mission right?" He asked.

"Uh…" Zen said, and looked down at the paper, "AH! Yep see right there! Beginner!"

He held the paper up and Pythagoras looked at it and smiled, "Haha, alright you two, go right ahead, good luck out there."

We waved to Pythagoras as we headed our way downstairs. The door was opened up ready for us. I heard Rudy from above shout good luck to us as we left. We waved to her and headed our way out. We kept up jog, heading to our destination.

"So do you know where this lake is?" I asked.

"Yeah it's bit far though! Might take us a while to get there, we could possibly get there a bit after noon I'd say. Thankfully, Treeside lake isn't usually that populated, so we shouldn't have much trouble catching the thing," he explained, yelling back.

"Alright!" I called over to him.

We traveled for a while. We moved pretty fast. I don't know how long it took us to get there, but it didn't really feel like it was too long, but his guess was close, looking at the sun I'd say we got there around noon. Soon enough we came to a path in the woods. Zen said it was through the path, and he was right.

Making our way to the end of it, we came across a pretty large lake connecting to a waterfall. Trees covered us with their leaves, not letting much sunlight break through. The lake was rather large too, but not large enough to where I couldn't swim through and get the fish.

"Okay so, I've done some fishing before, where do you think we can catch it?" Zen asked.

"Hm… from what the paper said, it's smart enough to not come up to the shore for bait, so I doubt it'll come up here to us just standing in the water," I explained.

"Yeah that makes sense…" Zen said, seemingly in thought.

"Well, here's an idea, we need to rile up the lake a bit," I continued.

"Rile it up?" Zen asked.

"Yeah, get the fish swimming, so do you have any attacks that could do just that?" I asked.

"Hmm… Yeah, I think I got something," He said.

He walked forward to the edge of the water. He opened his maw, and I saw purpleish, blue, energy start to build up in front of him. It spiralled around like wind, I could feel a light breeze build up around him from the attack. I didn't speak - I made sure I didn't break his concentration, but it was impressive nonetheless. He charged the move for another minute, and then in one go, he shot the energy forward at the water. Rings of the dark energy shot forward, and collided with the water, causing it the water to splash upward from the blast. A rainy shower formed from the impact.

I didn't have enough time to gawk, for Zen called out, "Go Dax!"

I took my change, without hesitating, I ran forward, and dived into the water. As I swam, I saw the droplets above, still pattering against the surface of the water. I took a look around, and sure enough my plan worked. The fish had already started to swim, now I just needed to find that bass. I saw a bunch of smaller fish swimming around, but thankfully I knew that wasn't what I was after.

The blue striped bass had two distinct features over the normal bass. For one, its pattern in the skin has blue linings in it, a very bright blue that shines when the sun hits it. Secondly, they were much larger than the average ones. While some bass grow bigger than others, the blue striped was almost guaranteed to be big.

I kept my eyes out, the fish I wasn't after passing by me like I wasn't even there. Bubbles forms from the water as the fins moved by. I moved to another area, still looking for my target. I had to find it, and catch it, and be careful with the catch too, I'm sure the one asking for this fish don't want my teeth in it.

I looked in one area, then the next, where was it. I saw some bigger fish, but then I'm not seeing the… BINGO!

There it was, moving at a quick pace through the water, the stripes glowing when the light passed by them. No wonder the guy asking for it knew where it was - the thing seemed to be even larger then every for the blue stripes.

With my target found, I didn't give it even a second, I started swimming for it, and knowing I was after it, took off as well. Another thing about them, don't let their size catch you off guard. Just 'cause they're bigger, doesn't mean they're always gonna be slower, something my parents taught me.

The fish was keeping his pace throughout, trying to stay away from me. I needed to catch up though, I didn't have a clue if there were any caves it could escape to, or any way to make to another lake.

Thankfully, I could tell he was slowing down, using up all that energy to try and get away, and now I had the upper hand here. I wanted to make sure I didn't lose it, so I went for my best bet. I usually don't use my moves when hunting, just in case I ever got into a fight with a Pokemon, but since Zen is also here I don't think I need to worry about that all that much.

I shot forward a water gun, and while it's less effective being underwater, the force and pressure could still travel. Sure enough the shockwave was enough to disorientate the fish. It swam around trying to get it's bearing, and as it was, I swam in close, and used the opportunity to wrap my arms securely around it.

It thrashed in my arms to try and get away, but I wasn't going to let that happen. I used my back feet to paddle up to the surface of the lake, making certain that the fish wouldn't escape my grasp. As I popped my head out of the water with a splash, I called out.

"Zen! I got the fish!" I called out.

"Great work!" he called from the shore.

I took my time to swim over to the edge of the lake, and soon enough I was able to stand up. The fish started to squirm really bad as I got above the water with it, so I was having trouble walking.

"Toss it!" Zen called.

Following the instruction, I did what was asked and tossed the fish from it's tail, it landed on shore and tried to flail itself back in, but thankfully Zen went in front of it and started pushing it more on land.

"Nice work Dax!" he called form the shore.

"Thanks!" I responded from the water.

While Zen was making sure the fish didn't move, I was about to step out of the water.

Suddenly, I felt my tail sting really bad, right after a resounding crunch sound ringing through the air. Within seconds I screamed, then right after, I felt myself get dragged back under the water, a splash and bubbles following suit from where I entered. My scream had been muffled by the water, and I heard the sounds of a distressed Zen screaming out above the water.

I was getting dragged through the water at a very quick pace by my tail, and I saw a pokemon. Blue and red skin covered the pokemon's body, with my tail locked between its jaws, a bit of blood staining the water as I got pulled. Its fins were yellow, and by that last detail and the teeth I realized the pokemon was a Carvanha.

I don't know why it was pissed off, but it was sure pulling me down fast, so I needed to concentrate. I squirmed in the water, doing my best to move my body and my tail. It was disoriented a bit, so I did the best thing I could do and kicked it, trying to get it to let go of my tail. In response to my kick, it bit down harder, which led to me screaming out under the water, bubbles flew around where I was screaming.

Thankfully, I wasn't alone. As I screamed, energy rings flew straight at the water and dark pokemon. The force was enough to get him to let go of my leg. I turned my head to see Zen had jumped into the lake, and shot the energy under here with us. He was already moving back up to the surface for air, so I did my best to get out of the lake. Zen had already gotten himself to the surface, and I was gaining, but once again was caught, this time by my foot. He didn't have a good of a hold as he did on my tail, but those teeth were still sharp, and he wasn't leaving me alone. So I kicked, and kicked him again. They would not get off me, GET OFF!

Then beside my for a split flash, I noticed those dark rings fly by once again. Then the shockwaves flew out, blasting the water around me and the fish away. We were caught for a split second out of the water, the Carvanha panicked and let go of my tail. I caught a glimpse of Zen who was falling as well, did he shoot the attack down into the water? I regained focus, and took my chance at hitting the prick as I fell. I slammed my fist on the top of its head, sending it crashing into the water.

As the lake closed up, the water flowing around me again like a storm. I took my chance though, while the fish pokemon was down, I needed to get out. I saw Zen had been looking, and once he saw I was okay he started moving his way to shore. I followed him and a much quicker pace. I overtook him, and was the first to get out of the water.

I ran up a few feet, turning around as Zen was getting out, "Hurry! Get away from the water!"

He had made his way out, and was now hopping to get away, but I noticed the Carvanha's fins making a mad dash through the water, straight at Zen.

"Zen look out!" I yelled.

Thankfully my plea worked, at least a little, Zen jumped just enough away to not get grabbed completely by the dark type. He did however catch Zen's front paw, and was trying to pull Zen back into the water. Zen thankfully had a good enough grip to keep himself in place.

"ARGH! DAMN IT LET GO!" Zen screamed out in a mixture of panic and anger.

I didn't even think, I bolted straight up to the fish pokemon, and bit down right onto it's back. The thing screamed just as Zen had and let go. In retaliation Zen followed, up by slashing the thing with his claws. I had let go just as he did, the fish landing into the water. I saw the pokemon about to move again, but ran up, and kicked the thing. Hard. It flew back a few feet, and took a splash in the water.

Zen and I quickly got ourselves out of the water, and back to dry land. I looked back to see the fish eyeing us, and then submerge itself back under. My breathing was fast, and I did my best to slow it down and calm down.

"You okay?!" I heard Zen yell right next to me.

It took me a second to realize what he had said, but then I replied, "Y-yeah… I'm pretty sure, are you?"

He looked at his paw, and I followed that as well. He had gotten a nasty bit on his paw, a bit of blood from where he was bit. He tested it out, making sure he could walk on it.

"Yeah, I'll be fine, I can still walk," he mentioned, then proceeded to lick the wound.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Cleaning it until Mucosa can take a look at it," he continued after answering.

"Oh, I see," I said.

I looked down at my foot. Thankfully got lucky, was really just a scratch. But my tail was a different story, I got bit as bad there as Zen did on his paw. I shot a cool stream of water back at it from my maw. I cringed from the pain, but this should be enough to clean it until Mucosa could look at it.

"Oh…" I heard Zen say.

"What?" I asked.

"Is your tail alright?" he asked.

"Uh… should be fine, I think," I replied.

"Oh good, uh… could you possibly, shoot some water on mine?" he asked.

"Oh uh, why?" I asked.

"It would be faster," he simply said.

"Oh uh, sure alright then," I agreed.

He held out his paw, and I made sure to be careful with the force of the water. The water landed on his paw, he cringed a bit, I would imagine it still stings being an open wound. After a minute I stopped, and he shook it around, inspecting it.

"Ah, that feels a bit better, for now at least," he said.

"That's good, you sure you're okay?" I asked again.

"Yep! I'm good to go," he said cheerfully.

"Well that's good… jeez, that pokemon was angry," I commented, doing another check at my tail.

"I probably went too strong with that attack, it probably disturbed it," Zen guessed.

"Yeah, maybe," I was inclined to believe, it made sense to me.

"Well, good job by the way, you caught the fish," Zen congratulated.

"Oh.. right, almost forgot," I laughed.

I got up, being careful with my tail, and walked over to the fish. Its squirming has died down, and I picked it up, thankfully wasn't dirty.

"Alright, we have the fish, now what do we do?" I asked.

"Well on the paper, our client is gonna meet us back at the guild, Rudy should be taking care of things if he beats us there, so let's head on," Zen said.

I noticed he was moving a bit slower than before as I followed him. It must've been the bite, if he got bit as bad as my tail got, which still was stinging right now, then he was feeling it too probably.

I asked some questions as we walked, "So are missions always like that? I usually don't have that many encounters with pokemon when I go hunting."

"I'm not really sure, I don't think it's always gonna be like that, but I've heard The Forces of Nature have dealt with such things too," Zen explained.

"Huh, so we wont be in situations like that too often?" I asked.

"Not really, at least I don't think. If we pick our missions right we shouldn't have any problems," he stated.

I lowered my head, "So, you didn't tell me you were that strong."

He turned back to me, "Huh?"

"You had that move, that was a big impact, you're actually really strong," I complimented.

He seemed to get a bit shy, smiling, "Oh haha, uh, it really wasn't anything big."

"Dude. You turned a lake into rain, how can you not call that big?" I asked.

"Well uh, hey you were great too you know, I can't fight like you can underwater, you've definitely got the advantage there, and you kicked that fish farther than Lazuli can bounce!" he argued back.

I tried to think of an argument, but failed, "Haha, alright, point taken."

We continued on our slow pace. To make sure the fish stayed fresh I shot it with water as I continued moving. We had been traveling for a while, and I was getting tired. We took a few times to stop and rest, getting in that fight took a lot out of us. We were careful with the bite marks, but they weren't really healing, so Mucosa would need to look at them.

"You doing okay?" I asked as I was walking.

"Yeah, so far so good, what about you?" he asked.

"I think I'm alright, the bite still stings, but it should be fine. We're almost there right?" I asked, not familiar with the distance and the time it takes.

"Well, we shouldn't be that much longer thankfully, we'll go to Mucosa as soon as we get there. How's the fish?" he asked.

"Fine, still kicking," I said.

That was all that was said for then. We traveled for a little while longer, I think it was late afternoon now, due to the sun starting to go down. Thankfully, I could see the giant guild tree in the distance.

"THERE!" I called out.

"Yep! Let's go!" Zen said.

We decided to close the distance with running, Zen I was surprised could still run even with his cut, but I guessed he'd be fine. We made it back to the gate, which was closed from the morning.

Zen walked up to the intercom-thing, "Rudy! We're back!"

"Zen! Heya! Good to see you two back! Opening the gate.".

The gate once again opened like before, and this time we went on inside on our own. The gate behind us shut closed, and when we got inside Rudy had rushed over. To see us.

"Hey how was your first-" she must have noticed us hurt 'cause she got panicked.

"Good grief - what happened!?" Rudy yelled out, running over to us, first inspecting Zen's paw, which had some blood on it outside of it's normal red fur shade, "Your paw, a-and your tail!?"

"It's okay Rudy, we got into a fight with a wild pokemon," Zen explained.

She looked over me, "Dax, are you okay as well?"

"Yeah, I'm okay, we fought it off," I said.

She gave a sigh of relief, "Well, that's good to hear… How'd your mission go?"

"Went great! We caught the fish we were supposed to catch with no… well, some problem but otherwise it worked out!" Zen smiled.

The Blaziken stifled a laugh, and rubbed the hair on top of Zen's head, "Well then, great job, now Zen, get you and your teammate to Mucosa, and I'll hold onto that fish 'til you guys get back from that, Dax."

She motioned for me to hand her the fish, and I complied.

"Don't worry, I'll keep it cool for the client 'til they come around, now as I said, nurses office," she repeated.

"Got it! Come on Dax," he said.

"Uh, right yeah!" I got up as well.

We all headed upstairs, and Rudy headed on her way to her station where she cooked with the fish, and Zen and I headed over to Mucosa's. We walked inside to see her just sitting around.

"Hey Mucosa," Zen started.

"Oh hey Zen, you-" she stopped mid sentence, "What happened!?"

"Haha, we got into some trouble with a pokemon," Zen said.

"Alright, get up on the table, I'll get my stuff out," she said, fiddling with stuff she had around, such as bandages.

Zen jumped up on to the table with a bit of trouble, but still being able to make it, while I struggled to get up there, not really being suited for jumping. Mucosa walked around, and helped me onto the table.

"Alright, let's see here," she took a look over us, first at Zen's paw, then moving over to take a look at me.

"My word these bites, what did this?" she asked.

"A Carvanha, I'm sure it was one," I said.

"Yep, no mistaking it that was a Carvanha," Zen followed up with.

"Yeesh, I've heard those things are vicious, thankfully you guys got away from it," she said.

"No kidding, from what my parents told me they don't care about what they go after," I explained.

"Mhm, sounds about right," she finished up checking the wounds, and got the medicine ready, which was her goo if I recall. Gross.

"Now be prepared, this is definitely something that's gonna sting," she held onto my tail, getting ready to put the medicine on.

She applied it, and well, "AHHHH!" I screamed.

"Oh I'm sorry, I tried to warn you," she said.

"It hurts worse then it did before!" I yelled.

"Haha, I guess you've never had medicine before," she said.

"I haven't and- OUCH!" I tried to speak again but she put on more, it was only a _dab_ but it stung SO BAD.

"Yeah, I remember my first time, you get used to it though," Zen said.

Mucosa began to bandage my tail now, "What is it even for?" I asked.

"It's make completely sure the cuts don't get infected, and we don't know what could possibly make you sick, so this is to make sure anything that could harm you, can't anymore," Mucosa explained.

"Oh… sorry," I said, not realizing I was out of place.

"Ah don't beat yourself up about it, I think everyone here has said the same thing," she said.

"Oh, well, alright," I said as she finished bandaging my tail. Looking back at it, it was wrapped tightly around the bites that the pokemon had put into me. I fiddled with it. I felt a bit of a sting as I did so, but at least it'd get better like she said.

She moved over to Zen next, and looked at his paw. She applied the medicine on, but I noticed Zen wasn't really reacting to the pain the medicine brought me. He was cringing a little, but it seems Mucosa was right, you get used to it. I felt annoyed it was so easy for Zen to take the pain though.

I gave a huff.

"Hm? You okay?" Zen asked.

"Uh, no it's nothing," I said embarrassed.

"Well I know we got hurt, but at least our first mission went well," Zen said.

"Oh it did?" Mucosa asked.

"Yep! Dax was able to catch the fish we were looking for in no time at all!" Zen explained.

"And then, that's when the Carvahna attacked?" she asked.

"Ahaha… yeah that was probably on me, I kinda shot the lake with an attack," Zen rubbed the back of his head.

"Welp, that's a learning experience I'd say, maybe try and find a way to not gain unnecessary attention?" she said.

"So come up with a better plan next time then?" I asked.

"There you go," Mucosa finished up Zen's bandages, "And yep, try different things, so hopefully something like this doesn't happen, or, hopefully something not worse than this."

"We'll be more careful next time," Zen promised.

"Please do try to," Mucosa said.

We headed out of the nurse''s office, and Zen decided that we'd wait on our client to show up. We told the astonishing Rudy what we'd do and she said she'd watch out for the client. We waited around for him to show up, but before that, the Cute Crew came back, and they seemed covered in dirt. Stella was kinda going off.

"Grr… Can't believe this nonsense," she said.

"Stella it's alright at least we got it back," Crystal said, holding what appeared to be a charm.

"Again! It's not that we didn't get it back, it's why was it in a dusty cave?! WHY WERE THEY IN THE CAVE?!" She yelled back.

Crystal gave a nervous laugh, "Haha, I'm really not- OH! Hey look Zen and Dax got back!"

"YAY! GUYS GUYS!" Lazuli screamed hopping over to us.

Zen waved, "Heya! How's it going you guys?"

"We got to go in a cave!" Lazuli said, he just like Crystal and Lazuli were covered in dust.

"Hey Dax!" Stella called out.

"Huh!? Uh, yes?" I asked.

"Do me a favor and shoot me with water, I don't feel like heading over to the lake right now," she said.

"Wait what uhhh," I stammered, a bit surprised.

"Look, just shoot me with water alright, that's all I want," she said.

I cocked my head and shrugged, she asked for it. So I shot water at her, enough to where she'd be soaked. Her fur was dripping wet, but the dust was gone. Her eyes were covered by the fur on her head.

"Thanks…" She gave an annoyed response.

"Uh… you're welcome?" I really didn't know if she was mad at me or not.

She shook as much water off as she could, "Anyways, now that that's over I can wait for dinner."

"Oh yeah guys! How'd your first mission go?" Crystal asked.

"It went great! Well minus the small bites," Zen said.

"Bites, you-oh?" Crystal noticed.

"AH! You guys got hurt! Nononono please say it isn't true!" Lazuli started freaking out.

"Lazuli we're fine, Mucosa patched us up," I tried to calm him down.

"Wait really? So you're not hurt?" he asked.

"Outside of some stinging, no it doesn't hurt," I said.

"YAY!" Lazuli bounced happily from the news.

"Well good to hear your first mission went alright, what happened to cause that though?" the Cleffa asked.

"We ran into a Carvahna," Zen said.

"Wait really?" Stella asked, "Good thing you handled it, I've heard bad things about them."

"No kidding, thing was able to pull me under the water so fast, thanks to Zen though we were able to get away," I said.

"You helped too though," Zen intervened.

"Zen! Dax!" We heard from the stairs.

Everyone looked over to see Rudy, "Your client is here."

Zen and I looked over to see, I believe that was a Talonflame, wearing a satchel bag around its neck... wait, A TALONFLAME!? Why did he need help catching a fish?!

"Heya! So you two got that fish for me huh?" he asked.

"Yep!" Zen called out as he walked over.

I was following behind him, "Uh, you're a Talonflame right?"

"Indeed I am, name's Barret," He greeted.

"I'm Dax, but why did you need help catching a fish?" I asked.

"Haha, I must admit it's quite embarrassing," He held a wing behind his head.

"I'm Zen by the way, and yeah, why did you need help? You seem like you could be able to catch the fish," Zen questioned as well.

"Well, that is what I usually do, but the only problem is that the fish seemed to know what I was doing, and kept deep under the water, so I couldn't exactly go in and fish for it," the Talonflame explained.

"Oh, well, I guess that makes sense," I said back.

"Speaking of the fish, let me get it for you," offered the bewildering Rudy.

She walked over for a moment, and got the fish. She came back.

"Here you go sir," she said.

"Thank you very much, especially thanks to you two for getting me this," he said.

"Hey, it's no problem," I said.

"No problem at all!" Zen said.

"And here's this, almost forgot," he put his head into his bag, and pulled out a little pouch.

"Here you go you two," he set it down on the ground, then took the fish from Rudy, and put it in his bag.

I picked up the bag, "Wow, thanks."

"Thanks sir!" Zen said.

"Don't mention it, well I'll see you guys if I ever need anything," Barret then opened his wings, and took off from the floor we were on.

"Wish I could bounce that high," I heard Lazuli said.

"No, no you don't," I overheard crystal.

"Hey Dax, mind if I see that?" Rudy asked.

"Uh, sure," I handed her the coin pouch.

She opened it and seemed to be counting, "Alright, that's two hundred for you two to keep."

"So, this is the cut you mentioned?" I asked.

"Yep, we take about, well ninety percent of what you earn per mission, again I'm sorry about that," Rudy said.

I shook my head, "It's fine really, I don't really need money anyways, well, actually we might need it for missions, so let's save up."

"Yeah, here I'll give it to Sly to put in my account," Zen said.

"Oh alright," I handed him the bag, which he grabbed in his mouth and ran off.

"Really good job out there Dax," Rudy said.

"Oh uh, thanks," I said, not really sure how to continue.

"I'm glad he was finally able to get a team, makes me happy," Rudy said.

"Really?" I asked.

She nodded, "Yep, ah I'm rambling aren't I, you go have fun with the others, I'll get to work on dinner."

"Oh uh, alright then, see ya!" I said.

"Ciao," she replied.

She went back to cooking, and I went over to see the Cute Crew again, I sat with them as I saw Zen coming back upstairs, talking to the Forces of Nature. Seems he was excited to tell everyone about our first mission, and I think I was happy about it too. I just joined and my first mission was a success, that was something to be proud of right?

Zen came back over to us, happy as ever, and after a long first day, we decided to wait until dinner alongside the Cute Crew, discussing our days to one another til dinner. Safe to say by night fall, I think it will take me seconds to go back to sleep, and boy did I want it.

Author's note: Thanks to Luanastar for the beta read of Chapter 3, and all others who have helped me with creating this story. And thanks to all of you who take the time to read this story. I wish you all a good day or night


	4. Announcement: Moving on

Hello all, this is Xeta. As far as it goes for those of you who follow you're probably expecting this to be an update on Project X, Pokemon Revival, or Even PMD everyday life. It's not, and I'm sad to bring you this news. This was something, I never expected on my end, I'm going to be honest. It's not something I ever planned on doing, or wanted to ever do. And as for most writers that possibly end up in this situation, it's probably just as bad on the readers for these sorts of things.

I recall several times on my end, promising I would never stop, that I would never quit doing this, for how much I enjoyed it. And for a while there, I even believed myself I would never stop.

I'm not going to keep anyone else in suspense since there is absolutely no reason to. It's obvious what this is and at worst what some of you were probably fearing. This isn't just writers block, this isn't just a simple hiatus. I feel that, overall, fanfiction writing is done on here, and it's been done for a few months now. And I know, I know I KNOW. There are people who read my things, this isn't about me wanting to see reviews come in, this is no one's fault, no one is forcing me to stop, and I know alot of you still keep up with this stories, and I can't thank any of you enough for this. Writing, beginning this, I think it genuinely saved me from such a bad part of my life, people reading, getting to interact with everyone, that saved me.

As of this, I've written possibly close to 100 writings, near 300,000 words have been written. And over the course of that time, I began to find new interests. I found a place in art, and spent alot of time doing it. Some of the art piece covers are so old now that it's hardly recognizeable for me to even tell this was me, and it is.

Near the beginning of this year, alot of people have probably wondered where I've been, and I made my own discovery about myself during the course of this year. I haven't written a chapter for revival, in over a year. And I realized why, I don't enjoy writing anymore, did I hate the time I spent in writing? Hell no, I enjoyed every second of it, and I wouldn't take it back or remove any of what I've done for any reason, it's where I started, why ignore it exists?

But I have to be honest this time, I need to be honest with you, and with myself. Writing has lost interest with me for more personal reasons. One major factor is this is where my passion shifted. Since I began drawing, and making art pieces, I realized just how much fun it was, and how much more fulfilling it felt, that I started doing it more than anything. I used to play video games alot more and even that doesn't get too much attention in my life anymore. My interests shifted, and my priorities shifted. And now I'm in college planning out my art degree on top of that.

Another reason for me leaving this behind was, there's no longer a need for me to do this. I believe in some of my very old announcement I mentioned this before. Life was, hard during the time in my life when I was writing. Writing, was a coping mechanism, plain and simple. It was a way for me to escape reality when i truly needed it. But now? My life is so much better, I don't need to write to get away from it. I don't need a coping mechanism anymore, and I know it myself. I'm not writing anymore not because i've grown out of it, but because I no longer have to do it, I no longer need to leave reality, life's better, life got so much better for me. And, in turn... I no longer need to write to escape it.

This isn't something I really wanted to make, but I didn't want to leave anyone in the dark, I didn't want to hide what I was doing or what was happening. As I said, I'm going to be honest with all of you. My ambitions have shifted, my life's better, and I just dont have the need or want to write anymore, not in this way.

Part of this is a goodbye, but not from the people who've watched me, who've read my things. This is also a thank you to all of you. You all really did help me through a bad time, reading comments, interacting with those who contacted me. Some of the best people I've met are due to me doing this, and I don't have any regrets on it.

I say it's only partly, cause I mentioned that I didn't want to write anymore in this way. Well, thankfully, I haven't stopped being creative entirely just yet, more of in a different format. I've started a comic series, and a serious one I plan to continue. Clockwork Journeys, and It's Pokemon mystery dungeon. I'm informing you all of this cause well, again I want to let you all know what I'm doing. No one has to look at it or read it, but it's what I'm doing now. Deviantart is where I'm posting this.

This is a different project, for one, I'm not writing on my own. I actually have a few people helping me write the story, so not only is it something new, it might also have better writing then what you're all used to seeing. Again this isn't something I really wanted to make. And if this is what your main interest was, I want to truly apologize, and it's all I can really do other than forcing myself to do something I'm not up to doing anymore.

Life is different now. But I dont want the time i've spent with everyone here to end. I spend alot of time on Deviantart Now, but I'm still under the same name. If any of you want to come over there, even if it's not to read, even if it's just to say hi, or stop by, it would be great to hear from those of you who're here to read this.

This site, and all of you, have been great to me, and I can't thank any of you enough. But I dont want it to be goodbye, it's more of just me moving forward. Moving on to something I truly enjoy, and feel like it's worth doing. As far as it goes, I believe this is the end for my writings. I would finish them if I could, but again, it's forcing myself to do something that, I just dont enjoy anymore.

So let's end on a high note. Once again, I'm not stopping with creating, it's just in a different medium, a different format that is more enjoyable for me. And if any of you want to come over to Deviantart, i'm under the same name and everything, "XetaJTS" If you want to just to check out what I've done, or even say hi, i'll be there to reply to you all, and it would be great to meet you all.

Thank you once again for all the good times, and once again, I'm sorry if this is dissapointing to anyone, and I mean anyone it's not what I wanted to say, and not what you wanted to hear, but it had to be said, and I needed to say it.

But most of all, thank you.

XetaJTS, continuing on, and moving forward.


End file.
